The Union government on Thursday told Parliament that global standards for air quality, including those issued by the World Health Organization, are not binding and only serve as a “guidance document”.

Union Environment Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said that World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines are “recommended values for air pollutants to help countries achieve air quality”.

“However, countries prepare their air quality standards based on geography, environmental factors, background levels, socio-economic status and national circumstances,” Singh told the Rajya Sabha in response to a question by Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP V Sivadasan.

The minister said that the global ranking of cities on pollution levels “is not being conducted by official authority”.

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