Right to Clean Air campaign

CSE has been working to improve air quality of the city of Delhi for the past ten years and there have been measurable improvements. CSE’s Right to Clean Air campaign has addressed the issue of vehicular pollution from aspects of fuel quality, emission norms, vehicle maintenance and fiscal and regulatory measures and transportation management to reduce pollution levels.

During the first phase of the campaign the focus was cleaning up the air in Delhi and was able to make substantial impacts. These include advancement of Euro II emissions standards for new vehicles in 2000, lowering of sulphur content in diesel and petrol to 500, lowering of benzene to 1 percent, implementation of the largest ever CNG programme for the public transportation systems, and phasing out of the 15 year old commercial vehicles. Simultaneously, certain important cross cutting measures including the inspection and maintenance programme for in-use vehicles, strengthening of air quality monitoring and checking of fuel adulteration were brought to focus. These first generation reforms have made significant impact on the city’s air.

In 2004, CSE organized a conference, The Leapfrog factor: Towards clean air in Asian cities which brought together experts, policy makers, civil society groups and industry representatives from different cities of India and Asia and captured the learning in the region and outside to help cities evolve strategies to control pollution from mobile sources. The objective of the conference was to find ways to address critical issues of common concerns among cities of India and south Asia and to facilitate policy makers and regulators to learn from each other’s experiences.

CSE organised several exhibitions and published several public interest advertisements to make awareness on the impact of air pollution on public health.