India and China are among the world’s top five countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and air pollution with the capacity to deal with the risks, a first of its kind research assessing the combined risks of air pollution and climate change, said on Thursday.

The world’s two fastest developing economies with 2.5 billion plus people have witnessed a spurt in particulate matter induced air pollution levels in the past two decades and have seen high risks due to climate change induced extreme rainfall, frequent cyclones and heat waves in recent past, the study says.

“Deaths resulting from toxic pollution are highest where the distribution of toxic pollution is greatest and, critically, also where the impacts of climate change pose the greatest risk,” the study, Global distribution and coincidence of pollution, climate impacts, and health risk in the Anthropocene, said, in a specific reference to India and China.

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