Fighting air pollution in India

 Background :-

• The WHO global air pollution database report that ranked 14 Indian cities among the 15 of the world’s most polluted, in terms of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 concentration, received great attention in India
• India’s urban pollution as measured by PM 2.5 level is already about 40 per cent above the global safe limits across major Indian cities. 70 per cent to 80 per cent of air pollution (as measured by PM 2.5) comes from vehicular emissions, domestic activity, construction activity, industry activity and road dust.
• How judiciary is ensuring India reduces air pollution :-
• In Arjun Gopal v Union of India (2018),the Supreme Court attempted to regulate the bursting of firecrackers while refusing to impose an outright ban on such firecrackers across the nation. However judgment had no serious impact on improving the air quality.
• It did also direct the Central Pollution Control Boards and equivalent state-level bodies to monitor the air quality in the short term to assess the impact of the use of firecrackers on it.
• NGT in Ganga Lalwani v Union of India(2018) directed the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana to come up with a scheme to penalise farmers, who set fire to their fields to clear it of plant residue, by not paying them minimum support price (MSP).

Short term solutions don’t work :-

• Banning the use of private vehicles from November 1 onwards, although drastic, will definitely not be enough to curb pollution.
• Odd-even schemes and, recently, the allowance by the Supreme Court (SC) for only green or zero-emission firecrackers, are the episodic measures that have been used, and still continue to be, to combat this methodical pollution.
• These solutions don’t work :-
• Odd-even didn’t work because, while vehicles accounted for around 9% of the city’s pollution, just a tenth was due to 4-wheelers that were affected by odd-even.
• Pollution due to the bursting of firecrackers is relatively small, compared to road dust that contributes 56% and 38% of Delhi’s PM10 and PM2.5 pollution, respectively, and crop stubble burning according to a Harvard study, is responsible for 50% of the pollution in October and November in the NCR.
• Though both Punjab and Haryana governments have introduced renting of machines, and subsidies for the same, that are part of the mechanised alternative, as per Down to Earth, the available lot can cover just a fifth of the acreage under paddy in Haryana in the short period farmers have between the harvest and sowing period.
• Public transport system might not be capable of handling these numbers, especially if the Delhi government continues to overlook the establishment of dedicated bus corridors, despite increased metro coverage.
• Failure of the union and state governments in curbing crop residue burning in the areas around the National Capital Territory.

Long term measures needed:-

• Short term measures should be accompanied by measures that increase the forest cover of the land and provide farmers with an alternative to burning the remains of their crops.
• Need to speed up the journey towards LPG and solar-powered stoves.
• Addressing vehicular emissions is within India’s grasp but requires a multi-pronged approach. It needs to combine the already-proposed tighter emission norms (in form of BS VI), with a push for shared mobility and public transport and adoption of alternate mobility technologies. While shared mobility can moderate the demand for individual vehicle ownership and usage, technology solutions today can allow for a sharp reduction in emissions per vehicle.
• Incentives for adoption of alternate mobility technologies:-
• India might need to consider pushing for battery localisation. Cell investments would need a long lead-time to materialize.
• Restrictions on elements that contribute negatively to strategic objectives (such as congestion charges on polluting technologies):-
• London imposes congestion charges during working hours on weekdays to vehicles entering the city centre.
• All these disincentives to traditional cars help in the push for electric vehicles.

Enabling infrastructure.:-

• There is an early need to standardise charging infrastructure/equipment to ensure interoperability and make it widespread.
• Stubble burning issue in North India need to be looked into seriously.
• Attention to non-technological aspects such as urban planning, to reduce driving, and to increase cycling, walking, and use of public transport are needed.

By: Priyank Kishore