#Beat Plastic Pollution - All words and little action
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Gurgaon: Winter is coming, and so is the deadline to retrofit diesel generator sets to cut down pollutants. Still, just 149 (less than 4%) out of the 3,890 large DG sets operating in the city have been converted so far. Beginning October 1, diesel generators can’t be operated in NCR – not even for essential services – if they haven’t been retrofitted with emission control devices or converted to run on cleaner fuels, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) had announced in June. Government data shows that north Gurgaon has 1,676 DG sets and south Gurgaon has another 2,214. In total, just 149 have been converted or retrofitted according to CAQM guidelines. Many of these generators are operating in housing societies and institutes such as hospitals and offices across the city. With such a low conversion rate, CAQM may be left with no option but to allow relaxation in the deadline. Asked about the lack of adherence with just around three weeks left to the October deadline, Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) chairperson P Raghavendra Rao told TOI that officials have been asked to sensitise the public about the norms and comply with the guidelines. CAQM set the guidelines earlier this year to phase out diesel generators – a key source of emissions in Delhi-NCR. The commission also announced additional restrictions in using DG sets when it enforces the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) during the winter months. At the turn of winter every year, Delhi-NCR turns into a chamber of hazardous pollutants that get suspended in the air due to a combination of meteorological conditions, low temperatures and high emissions. CAQM norms say DG sets with capacity between 19kW and 125kW will have to operate on dual-fuel mode from the next month, but these devices can only be used for a maximum of two hours a day when GRAP is in effect. DG sets with a power capacity of 125kW to 800kW will have to run on dual-fuel mode and will also have to be retrofitted with emission control devices (ECDs). Gensets over 800kW have to be retrofitted with dual-fuel kits or with ECDs, but these too can be operated up to 2 hours a day if GRAP is in place. There is no bar to new gensets (up to 800kW) that adhere to CAQM’s standards, the order said. According to data collected by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the organised sector in NCR adds 1.2 lakh DG sets every year, and another 30,000-40,000 machines are annually bought by the unorganised sectors. Diesel, when it is used up in a generator, emits oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide along with tiny pollutants called particulate matter. These emissions deteriorate air quality and are hazardous to health when inhaled, especially for people with existing respiratory ailments. Still, CAQM’s efforts to phase out DG sets over the years has been resisted by residents’ associations and industry representatives, who say the cost of modifying the devices is high or switching to cleaner fuels isn’t an option when there is no availability of piped natural gas (PNG) in some areas. “A DG set of 500kW needs Rs 12 to 15 lakh for conversion. Also, the CAQM’s revised guidelines make it mandatory for everyone, including societies and hospitals, to modify their generators. Emergency services and lifts in common areas of societies can’t be shut down,” said Praveen Malik, RWA president of SARE Homes in Sector 92. The HSPCB chairperson said pollution board teams will carry out surprise checks at societies, industrial units, hospitals and commercial hubs from the next month. “If anyone is found violating the norms, notices will be served. The party will be given time to respond to the notice and penalty will be imposed accordingly,” Rao said. Experts told TOI on Monday that the only lasting way to stop people from using generators is to ensure that power backup isn’t needed at all. “What needs to be done is to ensure that the hospitals, industries and housing societies get uninterrupted electricity supply during winter. This will lower their dependency on DG sets. Diesel emissions are carcinogenic to humans as its DG sets are operational in close proximity to human beings. That’s why emissions need to be controlled and they should be run on dual fuel kits,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhary, executive director for research and advocacy at the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE).
ऐसे समय में जब बड़ी फार्मास्युटिकल कंपनियां नए एंटीबायोटिक्स पर अनुसंधान और विकास से कतरा रही हैं, यह छोटी और मध्यम स्तर की बायोफार्मास्युटिकल कंपनियां हैं जिन्होंने इस अंतर को भरने का बीड़ा उठाया है। लेकिन इन कंपनियों को अपनी खुद की भारी चुनौतियों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है। जब तक इन चुनौतियों पर ध्यान नहीं दिया जाता और उन पर काबू नहीं पाया जाता, तब तक दुनिया एक गंभीर संकट में बनी रहेगी, जिसमें जीवन रक्षक एंटीबायोटिक दवाओं की टोकरी तेजी से छोटी होती जाएगी। यह बात सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट (सीएसई) द्वारा 24 अगस्त को आयोजित एक वैश्विक वेबिनार में विचार-विमर्श से सामने आई। एंटीबायोटिक अनुसंधान और विकास में संकट पर चर्चा करने के लिए सीएसई द्वारा आयोजित श्रृंखला में यह दूसरा वेबिनार था। वेबिनार में अपने उद्घाटन भाषण में, सीएसई महानिदेशक सुनीता नारायण ने कहा: “हमारे पास मौजूद एंटीबायोटिक दवाओं को संरक्षित करने की जरूरत है, लेकिन घातक प्रतिरोधी संक्रमणों के इलाज के लिए हमें नई एंटीबायोटिक दवाओं की भी जरूरत है। जबकि बड़ी फार्मास्युटिकल कंपनियां अब उत्सुक नहीं हैं, यह छोटी और मध्यम स्तर की कंपनियां हैं जिन्होंने जिम्मेदारी ले ली है। उनके हाथ में एक बड़ा काम है और बहुत कुछ इस बात पर निर्भर करता है कि उन्हें कैसे समर्थन दिया जाता है।'' नारायण रोगाणुरोधी प्रतिरोध (एएमआर) पर ग्लोबल लीडर ग्रुप के सदस्य हैं। एंटीबायोटिक प्रतिरोध एक मूक महामारी है। एंटीबायोटिक्स अप्रभावी हो रहे हैं और उपचार के विकल्प कम हो रहे हैं - स्वास्थ्य, आजीविका और अर्थव्यवस्था पर असर पड़ रहा है। दुनिया भर में, 2019 में, लगभग पाँच मिलियन मौतें इससे जुड़ी थीं। नारायण द्वारा संचालित, वेबिनार - 'छोटे और मध्यम स्तर के एंटीबायोटिक डेवलपर्स: उनके सामने आने वाली चुनौतियाँ और आगे का रास्ता', भारत में स्थित डेवलपर्स पर केंद्रित था और वासन संबंदमूर्ति, वरिष्ठ उपाध्यक्ष, ग्लोबल ऑपरेशंस, बगवर्क्स रिसर्च सहित प्रमुख हितधारकों और विशेषज्ञों को एक साथ लाया। इंडिया प्राइवेट लिमिटेड; जितेंद्र कुमार, प्रबंध निदेशक, जैव प्रौद्योगिकी उद्योग अनुसंधान सहायता परिषद (बीआईआरएसी), जैव प्रौद्योगिकी विभाग, भारत सरकार; सचिन भागवत, वरिष्ठ उपाध्यक्ष, ड्रग डिस्कवरी, वॉकहार्ट रिसर्च सेंटर; टी एस बालगणेश, अध्यक्ष, गंगाजेन बायोटेक्नोलॉजीज प्राइवेट लिमिटेड; और अमित खुराना, निदेशक, सस्टेनेबल फूड सिस्टम्स प्रोग्राम, सीएसई। वेबिनार श्रृंखला सीएसई मूल्यांकन- 'ए डेवलपिंग क्राइसिस' पर आधारित है, जो डाउन टू अर्थ (16-31 जुलाई) में प्रकाशित हुआ था। मूल्यांकन से पता चला कि वैश्विक एंटीबायोटिक पाइपलाइन प्री-क्लिनिकल और क्लिनिकल विकास चरणों में कैसे कमजोर है। 15 उच्च आय वाली दवा कंपनियों के अनुसंधान एवं विकास फोकस को समझने के लिए उनकी क्लिनिकल पाइपलाइन के विश्लेषण से पता चला कि अधिकांश बड़ी दवा कंपनियों ने नए एंटीबायोटिक दवाओं के अनुसंधान एवं विकास को लगभग छोड़ दिया है। छोटी और मध्यम स्तर की दवा कंपनियों ने जिम्मेदारी ली है, लेकिन उन्हें चुनौतियों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है। “भारतीय छोटे और मध्यम एंटीबायोटिक डेवलपर्स को कई चुनौतियों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है। अगर उनकी चिंताओं पर ध्यान दिया जाए तो वे वैश्विक पाइपलाइन को फिर से जीवंत करने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभा सकते हैं, ”सीएसई के अमित खुराना ने कहा। वेबिनार में बोलने वाले एंटीबायोटिक डेवलपर्स ने दवा विकास के वैज्ञानिक, वित्तीय और नियामक पहलुओं से संबंधित अपनी चुनौतियों पर स्पष्ट रूप से प्रकाश डाला। दो पारंपरिक जीवाणुरोधी एजेंटों को विकसित करने में लगी बायोफार्मास्युटिकल कंपनी बगवर्क्स के वासनसंबंदमूर्ति ने कहा, "एंटीबायोटिक इनोवेटर्स के लिए बड़ी फंडिंग के अलावा, वैश्विक स्तर पर नियामक सामंजस्य की आवश्यकता है ताकि इनोवेटर्स उत्पन्न डेटा का अच्छी तरह से उपयोग कर सकें।" “हमें भारत में इनोवेटर दवाओं के लिए क्लिनिकल परीक्षण खोलने की आवश्यकता है। हमें त्वरित अनुमोदन मार्गों की भी आवश्यकता है ताकि यह स्पष्ट हो कि जीवन रक्षक एंटीबायोटिक्स कैसे योग्य हो सकते हैं। यह बहुत सारे नवप्रवर्तन को बढ़ावा देगा और कंपनियों को खोज के क्षेत्र में मदद करेगा,'' उन्होंने कहा। वॉकहार्ट के सचिन भागवत ने कहा, "समर्थित होने वाली परियोजना का चयन करते समय सही संतुलन बनाना महत्वपूर्ण है - अल्पावधि में वंचितों के लिए एक व्यवहार्य और अच्छी तरह से विभेदित उत्पाद और लंबी अवधि के लिए अधिक विफलता जोखिम वाली एक अभिनव दवा के बीच।" चार पारंपरिक एंटीबायोटिक्स विकसित कर रहा है। “खोज प्रतिभा को पोषित करने पर जोर देना होगा। यदि मौजूदा स्थिति जारी रही, तो हम सभी संसाधन लगाने के बाद भी बहुत कुछ नहीं कर पाएंगे, ”उन्होंने आगाह किया। धन जुटाने की वास्तविक समस्या पर प्रकाश डालते हुए, गंगाजेन्स के टी.एस. बालगणेश ने कहा: “भारत और पश्चिमी दुनिया में रोगज़नक़ों में प्रतिरोध का स्तर भिन्न हो सकता है; अगर वहां यह कोई बड़ी समस्या नहीं है तो पश्चिमी हित फंड देने के इच्छुक नहीं होंगे। इससे हम पूरी तरह से भारतीय स्रोतों या पड़ोसी देशों के स्रोतों पर निर्भर हो जाते हैं।” गंगाजेन बायोटेक्नोलॉजीज एक बायोलॉजिक्स कंपनी है जो गंभीर जीवाणु संक्रमण के इलाज के लिए प्रोटीन जीवाणुरोधी और बैक्टीरियोफेज जैसे गैर-पारंपरिक उपचारों पर ध्यान केंद्रित करती है। “व्यावसायीकरण की समस्या विकास की समस्या से भिन्न है। कई स्तरों पर दिक्कतें हैं. हमें इसे तोड़ने और उनमें से प्रत्येक को संबोधित करने की आवश्यकता है, ”उन्होंने कहा। चिंताओं पर प्रतिक्रिया देते हुए, बीआईआरएसी के जितेंद्र कुमार ने अपनाई गई कई पहलों पर प्रकाश डाला। “हम इस क्षेत्र का समर्थन करने के इच्छुक हैं क्योंकि एएमआर एक महामारी है
India aims to install 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, shifting focus to achieve 50% non-fossil fuel capacity by that time. As India plans a diverse energy landscape with capacities from hydro, nuclear, solar, wind, and bioenergy, there are concens over large-scale renewable energy projects using agricultural and ecologically sensitive land, posing environmental and socio-ecological risks. Over 74% of solar development in India was built on landcover types that have natural ecosystem preservation, or agricultural value, found a study from last year mapping solar locations. As per data provided in the Lok Sabha last month, the Indian government has sanctioned 50 solar parks, with a total capacity of 37,990 MW across 12 states in India. Of these, 11 solar parks are complete and seven are partially finished. As India powers ahead with expanding its renewable energy capacity, there is a concern over how it will manage its dual priorities: achieving renewable energy targets while safeguarding food security in a country with a rapidly growing population. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar projects demand more land, often three to twelve times more, than that required for fossil fuel-based energy generation. In India, over 74% of solar development In India is built on landcover types that have natural ecosystem preservation, or agricultural value, according to a study published in the Nature journal in 2022, conducted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC-India) and Microsoft. “We had reached out to multiple organisations and governments to provide us data on where all these solar and wind farms are going, but we always had difficulty getting the data. That’s when we thought of making use of this technology for our study,” said Shivaprakash Nagaraju, Senior Applied Scientist and one of the authors of the study. Deploying a mix of remote sensing satellite data and machine learning, the researchers began by compiling point labels of known solar farms and creating weak segmentation labels through human-machine interaction. This pixel-based data was then paired with the geo-referenced Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to train a supervised segmentation neural network and was further refined through Hard Negative Mining. Through this, they further estimated the timelines when these solar panels were installed and assessed the land use pattern prior to their installation. According to the study, more than 74% of solar projects were on land with ecological preservation or agricultural value – 67.6% of agricultural land and 18.7% of natural habitat – with 38.6% of agricultural land having the potential to cultivate seasonal crops such as kharif, rabi, and zaid along with 28.95% of the land having plantation crop/orchards. Analysing the results of the study, Binit Das, Programme Manager, Renewable Energy, Centre for Science and Environment and not associated with the study, told Mongabay India, “Given the substantial land requirements necessary for achieving India’s ambitious RE goals to generate 420 GW of power from solar and wind projects, the study suggests potential environmental and socio-ecological risks. As a result, this effort might contribute to food insecurity in the years ahead, since the country will need approximately 400,000 hectares of land by 2030 to meet its renewable energy targets.” Currently, India’s non-fossil fuel installed capacity, including hydro and nuclear energy, is at 184 GW and the country needs 177 GW of renewable energy capacity in the next seven years – that’s more than 25 GW per year – to achieve its goal of 500 GW (gigawatt) of renewable energy capacity by 2030. As per the latest NITI Aayog projections, India’s total foodgrain demand is expected to increase to 215 million tonnes by 2033-34 to feed its population. In 2030, the estimated demand for food grain will be 252.05 million tonnes for the entire country, with 171.68 million tonnes needed in rural areas and 80.37 million tonnes in urban areas. The supply projection for the same period is 350.42 million tonnes. Bhargavi S. Rao, Senior Fellow and trustee at the Environment Support Group (ESG), points out that India requires about 225-230 million tonnes of foodgrains to feed its population in a year. But, due to incompetent policies and food wastage, India is unable to feed its population despite an increase in production which is testified by India’s 107th rank out of the 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index. Adding to the woes, a 2030 projection by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) states that climate change could cause a decline of 16% in India’s food production, increasing the number of people vulnerable to hunger by 23%. “When it is required for India to prepare well in advance for the upcoming food crisis, allocating large chunks of lands of ecological and agricultural importance for solar farms doesn’t make for a well-thought-out approach,” Rao emphasised. Rao explains, “Agriculture is an activity that is interwoven with a variety of other agro-pastoral livelihoods such as animal rearing, weaving, fishing, etc. that supplement the rural household economy and thereby guaranteeing nutritional security at the household level. Once land is diverted all other livelihood activities cease to exist and nutritional security at the household level will be depleted.” According to the Nature study, there have been at least 15 reported instances of conflicts associated with solar and wind energy projects in India since 2017. These conflicts have been on the rise, impacting the livelihoods of many individuals and the substantial investments made by renewable energy (RE) developers. India has a considerable potential for solar energy generation (~550 GW) on rooftops, artificial water bodies (such as canal tops and reservoirs), and spaces along national and state highways. A 2021 report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis notes that protection of farmland is essential, but nurturing an Indian agrivoltaics sector could secure benefits to farmers and reduce pressure on other types of land. “Measures include supporting a major expansion of agrivoltaics research and incentivising agrivoltaics uptake where crops, soils and conditions are suitable and yields can be maintained or improved,” it recommends. Leveraging these resources could significantly reduce the land required for RE expansion and could result in fewer social, ecological, and environmental impacts compared to land with high ecological, agricultural, livelihood and biodiversity value. However, the study emphasises that harnessing renewable energy on these less conflict-prone lands won’t happen by chance; it requires intentional effort. Policymakers and decision-makers hold the responsibility of ensuring that chosen project sites do not compromise communities’ livelihoods, land rights, biodiversity, and natural ecosystems. “Understanding the factors associated with renewable energy development and predicting future expansion patterns will allow for the proactive identification of potential conflicts between renewable energy and other important land uses. This information can be used to guide renewable energy development toward areas with lower conflict, which will be important to avoid conversion to productive agricultural land and minimize the food-versus-energy controversy,” Das said.
Lucknow: The pace of UP’s progress and the future roadmap for development will be discussed threadbare at NBT’s ‘UP Rising Conclave’ to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at Hotel Taj Mahal, Lucknow, on Monday. In the inaugural session, the CM will throw light on UP’s achievements, the changed scenario and the efforts being made to realize people’s aspirations. Deputy chief ministers Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya will discuss the government’s priorities, steps taken in infrastructure and health sectors, and plans for social inclusion and its impact. The first session of the conclave will focus on ‘Ease of Living: Infrastructure, Green Energy and Environment’ in which experts will discuss the changes and expectations in the lives of people after the introduction of better infrastructure facilities, schemes, and their implementation. Awanish Awasthi, advisor to the CM, will present a picture of infrastructure development in UP and how it has changed the state. Director of IIM-Ahmedabad, Bharat Bhaskar, will discuss conditions necessary for ease of living, the nature of policies and measures to make it more inclusive. AKTU vice-chancellor JP Pandey will talk about coordination of technology and ‘ease of living’. Program manager, ‘Clean Air and Mobility’, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Shambhavi Shukla, will present the roadmap for environmental conservation for inclusive development. The next session will focus on dimensions of cleanliness and health, followed by challenges before medical sector, availability of doctors and makinghealth facilities affordable. KGMU VC Dr Sonia Nityanand, VC of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University P Sanjeev Mishra, member of National Medical Commission Dr Yogendra Malik and CEO of Apollomedics Dr Mayank Somani will be present.
At a time when big pharma is shying away from research and development on new antibiotics, it is the small and medium scale biopharmaceutical companies that have taken up the cudgels for filling this gap. But these companies are faced with enormous challenges of their own. Until these challenges are addressed and overcome, the world will continue to be in a dire predicament in which it will see its basket of life-saving antibiotics rapidly becoming smaller and smaller. This emerged from the deliberations at a global webinar organised on August 24 by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).This was the second webinar in a series being conducted by CSE to discuss the crisis in antibiotic research and development. In her opening speech in the webinar, CSE director general SunitaNarain said: “We need to conserve the antibiotics that we have, but we also need new antibiotics to treat deadly resistant infections. While the big pharmaceutical companies are no longer keen, it’s the small and medium scale companies which have taken up the responsibility. They have a huge task at hand and a lot depends on how they are supported.”Narainis a member of the Global Leader’s Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Antibiotic resistance is a silent pandemic. Antibiotics are becoming ineffective and treatment options are reducing -- impacting health, livelihoods and economies. Worldwide, in 2019, about five million deaths were associated with it. Moderated by Narain, the webinar – ‘Small and Medium Scale Antibiotic Developers: Challenges they face and the way forward’, focused on developers based in India and brought together key stakeholders and experts including Vasan Sambandamurthy, senior vice president, Global Operations, Bugworks Research India Pvt Ltd; Jitendra Kumar, managing director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology, Government of India; Sachin Bhagwat, senior vice president, Drug Discovery, Wockhardt Research Centre; T S Balganesh, president, GangaGen Biotechnologies Pvt Ltd; and Amit Khurana, director, Sustainable Food Systems Programme, CSE. The webinar series is based on a CSE assessment– ‘A Developing Crisis’, -- published in Down To Earth (July 16-31). The assessment had showed how the global antibiotic pipeline is weak across the pre-clinical and clinical development stages. Analysis of the clinical pipeline of 15 high-earning pharmaceutical companies to understand their R&D focus showed thatmost big pharmaceutical companies have all but quit the R&D of new antibiotics. It is the small and medium scale pharmaceutical companies have taken up the responsibility, but they are facing challenges. “Indian small and medium antibiotic developers are facing multiple challenges. They can play an important role in rejuvenating the global pipeline, if their concerns are addressed,” said Amit Khurana from CSE. The antibiotic developers who spoke at the webinar clearly highlighted their challenges related to scientific, financial and regulatory aspects of drug development. “In addition to the big funding for antibiotic innovators, there is need for regulatory harmonisation at the global level so that the innovators can well use the data generated,” said VasanSambandamurthy from Bugworks, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing two traditional antibacterial agents. “We need to open up clinical trial testing for innovator drugs in India. We also need accelerated approval pathways so that it is clear how a life-saving antibiotics can qualify. It will spur alot of innovation and help companies across the discovery space,” he added. “It is important to strike a right balance while selecting a project to be supported -- between a viable and well differentiated product for the unmetneed in the shortterm and an innovative drug carrying more failure riskfor the longer term,” said Sachin Bhagwatfrom Wockhardt, which is developing four traditional antibiotics. “There has to be emphasis on nurturing the discovery talent. If the current situation continues, we won’t be able to do much even if we put in all resources,” he cautioned. Highlighting a real problem of sourcing funds, T S Balganesh ofGangaGensaid: “The level of resistance in pathogens may vary in India and the western world; western interests would not be keen to fund if it is not a major problem there. This makes us completely dependent on Indian sources or sources from neighbouring countries.” GangaGen Biotechnologies is a biologics company focusing on non-traditional therapies such as protein antibacterials and bacteriophages for treating serious bacterial infections. “The problem of commercialisation is different from the problem of development. There are problems at several levels. We need to break it down and address each of them,” he added. Responding to the concerns, Jitendra Kumarof BIRAC highlighted several initiatives that have been adopted. “We are keen to support this area as AMR is a pandemic and definitely a crisis. We have been working on it and will do whatever is possible from our side,” he assured. CSE researchers, in their assessment, had called for critical reforms to stimulate the antibiotic R&D ecosystem for a sustainable and equitable antibiotic access. There is a need for greater public financing, a coordinated response from nationalgovernments and striking the right balance in public-private partnership for antibiotic development. They had highlighted that antibiotics have attributes of a ‘global public good’ despite not fitting into the strictest definition. “We need to see how public funding is used not just for innovation but also to make sure to get these drugs out on the table. This is where we will need to look at our priorities, target what we need and see if we are able to use it for the rest of the world,” said Narain. (Centre for Science and Environment)
The problem is that there are two distinct agricultural worlds It all boils down to fuel and food. I am talking about the emissions that have “forced” the world’s climate to change, leading now to catastrophic events. While we discuss the contribution of the energy system — fossil fuels that emit long-living carbon dioxide — we don’t talk enough about the other elephant in the room — agriculture and the food we eat. This is because more than any other economic sector, agriculture creates a divide between the world that emits for survival and the one that emits for luxury. In 2018, some 11 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions were from the food the world produced; of this, the bulk of the emissions (roughly 40 per cent) were from enteric fermentation in the digestive systems of ruminant livestock. Food-producing animals emit methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. Another 26 per cent of the agriculture-related emissions were nitrous oxide from livestock manure applied in fields or dumped. Synthetic fertilisers used in crops then added 13 per cent nitrous oxide and methane emissions from rice cultivation contributed 10 per cent of the total agriculture-related emissions. The problem is that there are two distinct agricultural worlds. One, the industrial-agriculture model, where food is manufactured in factory farms; the size of animal holdings and the amounts of chemical inputs used to produce such food is massive. This intensive food-farming system has an ownership pattern that differs from the subsistence agriculture of the other world. In this other world, farmers with small landholdings are engaged in growing food for their consumption or for their livelihood. It is the same for livestock — a few cattle or other animals kept in homestead farms. India, for instance, has the distinction of having the world’s largest livestock population, which is also in the hands of very small farmers. Livestock contributes 25-50 per cent of an individual farmer’s income, according to the official data. It is thus crucial for their economic security. That said, the overall emissions of the large numbers of cattle and other ruminants could be significant. According to the “2021 Third Biennial Report” of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, methane emissions from enteric fermentation add up to 8 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. What then is the answer for controlling methane emissions? And how will it differ from the other world’s actions? This is the same when it comes to rice production in our world; it is grown by small farmers in areas of high rainfall, where the fields are also used for recharging groundwater. This is not to say that the rice grown in water-scarce regions of our world, including states like Punjab and Haryana, is ecologically sound. But we cannot discount the role of rice in nutrition and livelihood for millions in this (our) world. And remember, as we discuss this, farmers are also the first victims of climate change. In our world, it is a multi-fold crisis that threatens their very survival. First, the increasing cost of agricultural inputs and the lack of public infrastructure, including for irrigation, hits their livelihood. Second, increasing food costs are unaffordable to most consumers and governments step in to import food from intensive farming systems that are also invariably subsidised. Farmers lose out. Then third is the fact that farmers are being hit again and again by extreme weather events; their crops are lost to floods, drought, pest attacks, and unseasonal cold and heat. We, therefore, need to discuss agriculture and climate change in the differing contexts of the two worlds. Currently, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is pussyfooting around the question of food. This is because it refuses to confront the beast of intensive food-farming systems, which are also linked to the excessive eating of meat in the other world. Of course, action is not easy. The Netherlands government learnt this when it decided to cut nitrous oxide emissions, which would require farmers to drastically reduce livestock, convert to green farms, or shut down. It led to widespread protests, which then contributed to the fall of the government a few months ago. New Zealand, where cows are highly productive and contribute almost half the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, has proposed a “burp” tax — farmers would have to pay based on the number of cattle and feed. But there is opposition because this would invariably lead to lower cattle numbers for farmers. So, the tax has been deferred and the country continues to count its emission reductions without factoring in the agriculture sector’s contribution. The meat question is equally touchy. The meat interests are as powerful as the fossil fuel industry, if not more so. But let’s at least accept that this is what is at stake. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment sunita@cseindia.org, @sunitanar
World EV (Electric Vehicles) Day falls on September 9 and marks a social media campaign to popularise EVs. It is part of a global drive to replace internal combustion engines with EVs to reduce fossil fuel dependency and serves as an occasion for nations to assess the progress they have made in this regard. By 2030, the Indian government hopes to ensure that 30 per cent of private cars, 70 per cent commercial vehicles and 80 per cent two- and three-wheelers are EVs. It was a target set in 2021 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and a NITI Ayog backed study estimated that India could see at least 50 million EVs on the road at the beginning of the next decade. But this may be a difficult target to achieve. A recent independent analysis by the clean air and sustainable mobility team at Centre for Science and Environment pegs annual EV sales in 2030 at 2.05 million. The International Energy Agency estimates annual EV sales of 1.9 million in India by 2030. Currently, according to MoRTH’s website, India has over 2.8 million registered EV vehicles. Till now this year’s EV sales have touched over 8 lakh. But much of the sales have been in the two and three-wheeler segments. 434, 914 of the former and 246, 270 of the latter accounted for bulk of the sales. A little over 38,000 cars were sold and 812 EV buses found buyers. According to experts, current government schemes are based on demand-side support and subsidy, providing buyers incentives. It is felt the government should consider setting electrification targets for the supply side or automobile manufacturers. Also, the long-term focus must be on 100 per cent switchover to EVs, thus existing vehicles must be replaced by EVs rather add more vehicles to the already congested roads.
World EV (Electric Vehicles) Day, observed on September 9, serves as a reminder of the global efforts to promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs) and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. In line with this, the Indian government has set ambitious targets to increase the adoption of EVs in the country. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) aims to ensure that by 2030, 30% of private cars, 70% of commercial vehicles, and 80% of two- and three-wheelers in India are EVs. The NITI Aayog, a policy think tank in India, estimates that by the beginning of the next decade, there could be at least 50 million EVs on Indian roads. However, achieving these targets may prove challenging. An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment suggests that annual EV sales in India by 2030 may reach 2.05 million, while the International Energy Agency projects sales of 1.9 million EVs in the same period. Currently, there are over 2.8 million registered EVs in India, with sales of over 800,000 vehicles recorded so far this year. The majority of these sales have been in the two- and three-wheeler segments, with cars and buses contributing smaller numbers. Experts believe that the government’s current support and subsidy schemes focus on incentivizing buyers rather than setting electrification targets for automobile manufacturers. They suggest that a long-term approach should prioritize a complete transition to EVs, replacing existing vehicles instead of adding more to the already congested roads. As India works towards its EV goals, World EV Day serves as an important occasion for the nation to evaluate its progress and continue its efforts to promote sustainable mobility. Sources: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, NITI Aayog, Centre for Science and Environment, International Energy Agency
NEW DELHI: A high-level committee, which was constituted to monitor the rejuvenation of Yamuna, has proposed to generate solar power along the Najafgarh drain by erecting pillars on its banks to install solar panels. A 6-km-long site, from Dhansa to Ghummanhera, is under consideration for installation of the solar panels. According to an initial assessment done by agencies, around 30 MW power can be generated by installing solar panels along the drain. "We have approached Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to examine the proposal and inform us if the project is economically viable. The site has trees of low height and their shadow will not impact the efficiency of solar panels," said a senior official. The official added that the priority of the committee was to rejuvenate Yamuna. "The plan of generating solar power will not impact the revival of the Najafgarh drain, which is an important part of the Yamuna rejuvenation project. However, if the plan of solar power generation is successful, we may implement it on other stretches of big drains like Supplementary and the one in Shahdara," said an official, adding that a team of SECI has conducted a survey of the Najafgarh drain. "The chief secretary had suggested that the power department and SECI can be involved for exploring the suitable options or funding for solar power generation," according to the latest minutes of the committee's meeting, which took place on August 10. Delhi Transco Limited has opined that a power purchase agreement for the project is feasible. "The matter is being pursued with DTL for confirmation so that it may be forwarded to SECI for further action on this issue. Detailed feasibility and potential are yet to be submitted by SECI," according to the meeting document. Data shows that around 9% of the power consumed by Delhi currently comes from the Sun. The draft Delhi Solar Policy 2022 plans to meet 25% of the annual electricity demand of Delhi through solar energy. Binit Das, programme manager, renewable energy, CSE, said, "In 2022, the state introduced its draft solar policy, which included an ambitious goal of achieving 6,000 MW of solar capacity by 2025. This target encompasses 750 MW of rooftop solar installations and 5,250 MW of utility-scale projects located outside of Delhi. The recent announcement of the project is a part of the broader utility-scale initiative launched last year." "Given Delhi's high population density, the implementation of solar projects within the city can be challenging. Projects like the one located along the Najafgarh drain offer a solution by generating renewable electricity without utilising valuable arable or habitable land. However, it's essential to ensure that the structural design is executed correctly to prevent issues related to cleaning and regular maintenance in the future."
GURGAON: While the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has framed a policy to improve air quality in Delhi-NCR, Gurgaon is lagging in one of its key components — increasing green cover. Data shows the city only achieved 33% (7.2 lakh) of its plantation target of 21.6 lakh saplings in 2023-24. With the monsoon season at its tail end, plantation drives are unlikely to be carried out after October. “The city’s plantation target has not been up to the mark. Landscaping and greening is crucial to curb air pollution. Gurgaon needs to pick up pace,” Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) chairperson P Raghavendra Rao said on Friday. The CAQM expert panel was formed in July last year to come up with a roadmap to address Delhi-NCR’s persistent air pollution problem. Some of the world’s most polluted cities fall in this landlocked region, where haze-enveloped skies have become an annual feature of the winter months. According to the policy on reducing dust pollution, CAQM recommends “longer-term systemic changes” such as street redevelopment plans for greening of roadsidess and central verges, and converting unpaved areas into green spaces. Screenshot 2023-09-02 090241 The agencies in the city had decided their plantation targets last year and submitted it to CAQM. According to the data, the GMDA was given the target to plant 10.5 lakh saplings, of which it has sown 1.6 lakh (16% of the target). GMDA’s nodal officer for environment and sustainability Subhas Yadav on Friday admitted that the authority had lagged behind. “We will carry out the maximum plantation work possible in the city till October,” he said. Similarly, MCG had a target to plant 5.2 lakh saplings, of which it planted 12%. The NHAI, which had to touch the count of 5 lakh, planted 3.5 lakh. The Municipal Corporation of Manesar (MCM) completed 46% (13,000) of its targeted 28,000. But there were also agencies that exceeded their aims. The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation planted 30,600 saplings, 200 more than its target. The HSVP had to plant 29,950 saplings, but the figure it managed was more than three times higher -- 99,800 saplings. Despite this, the city – which is fast expanding its concrete footprint as population density continues to go up -- was far behind its total plantation target. At the same time, the city is also losing its forest cover to make way for urban clusters and infrastructure. According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Gurgaon lost 2.47sqkm of forest cover between 2019 and 2020. “ We definitely need more green spaces as these also filter rain, reducing air and water pollution. Green spaces help cool our cities, reducing the heat-island effect,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director for research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment.
Even the most-hardened Delhiite would be shocked by a new report that the city’s pollution threatens to reduce lifespan by up to 12 years Every great city has its great joys and its great sorrows. So, Delhi, a radial melting pot of cultures that has history at every corner, greenery on every sidewalk, and changes clothes and colours with the seasons, has been plagued with debilitating concerns over women's safety, and with something noxious, deleterious, downright nasty, in the air. According to multiple surveys in recent years by organisations ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the University of Surrey, and from the University of California at Berkeley to the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi, Kanpur and Mumbai, the city is now the most polluted in the world. An inglorious, undisputed leader in a dishonour roll that features 13 Indian cities among the top 20. A Delhi resident is today exposed to an average of 153 micrograms per cubic metre of PM 2.5—the smallest and most harmful of all measurable particulate matter—which is 15 times higher than the WHO’s recommended annual average. And while this data may seem too obscure to raise alarm bells, and the effects of pollution too insidious to rattle the cage, disease and death is looming. Preying first on the most vulnerable—children, seniors, those with respiratory disorders—and slowly devouring even the most hardy. The stench of smoke, burning of the eyes, smoggy mornings, hazy nights are all symptoms of a deeper malaise. Doctors associate high levels of suspended particulate matter and sulphur dioxide with increased mortality, morbidity and impaired pulmonary function. They say that fine particulates penetrate the respiratory system, and can alter the immune system, impair the liver and the kidney, and cause brain damage in children resulting in lower IQ, hyperactivity and lower concentration. The rise in carbon monoxide levels affects the cardiovascular system, particularly among children, and can attack the nervous system. Two studies endorsed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2012 said that one in five adults and one in four children in Delhi suffered from upper respiratory diseases, and that these numbers were on an upward trend. There is no dispute any longer that drastic action is needed. In this winter of discontent when the ambient air quality is at its worst, emergency measures have suddenly become the order of the day as Delhi has emerged all of a sudden as a test case for pollution reforms that will have implications for cities such as Gwalior, Patna and Ahmedabad that are suffering from similar problems. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has announced a series of half-measures—but measures nonetheless—to kick-start the fight. It has been buttressed by the judiciary, which has radical ideas of its own. So while one group has decided to restrict Delhi’s private four-wheelers to even and odd registration plates on alternate days, a battle of one-upmanship has begun in which the other wants to restrict or phase out diesel vehicles altogether. Ignoring the hue and cry and the logistic nightmare both these plans throw up, the executive and the judiciary seem determined to finally bell the cat. While this is a good issue to be squabbling over, some key questions remain: what does the cat really look like, how did it become so menacing, is the bell loud enough, and are they trying to bell the wrong cat altogether? Perhaps the first step towards understanding Delhi’s particular pollution problem is to understand the city—its aspirations, and its design. Delhi is primarily a network of localities, or a conglomerate of villages, linked by roads that intersect, bifurcate and overlap, like spaghetti in a bowl. It’s a series of concentric circles with numerous entry and exit points, and has almost no dedicated commercial centre, and no clear housing pattern. It is as long as it is wide, unlike Mumbai which has changed gradually from a straight line along the sea to a narrow isosceles triangle. Its population is growing at an alarming rate, having nearly doubled from 10 million to 20 million in the last two decades. And new satellite towns such as Gurgaon and Noida, which now form an ominous National Capital Region because of seamless urban integration, are also as commercial as they are residential. DESIGN FLAW It is, in other words, a landlocked cauldron of smoke, surrounded by an even smokier periphery, without the natural advantage of replenishing its air that coastal cities have. On top of that, it has an organic growth pattern that makes it arduous to provide a mass transit system that works for everyone because of a lack of clarity between where people live, and where they work. It is, as Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director-research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), puts it, “suffering from a design flaw”. And as Rahul Mehrotra, urban planner and professor of urban design and planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, describes it, “a victim of poor land-use planning”. It’s because of this haphazard structure that the greatest middle-class dream in Delhi is individual mobility, and the entire focus of its transport system has been to support private vehicles. To have made it in Delhi is to have wheels under you. The city, as a result, has a total of 8.8 million vehicles, and adds an average of 1,400 vehicles to its arsenal every month. This is more than the vehicles in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata combined, though about 60 per cent of these are two-wheelers. Another problem is that Delhi’s growth, and that of many other big Indian cities, has been so rapid that infrastructure has not been able to keep pace. “Typically, in India, the introduction of mass public transport is a rearguard action,” says the ever-cogent Mehrotra, “as opposed to avant garde action.” This is different from many other global cities where public transport, coupled with cheaper housing incentives, opened up newer, better-connected hinterlands. Infrastructure in Delhi has always tried to play catch-up with urbanisation rather than lead it. These factors make Delhi’s public transport system both more uncomfortable to use and more inefficient when compared with private vehicles. This double whammy is a crucial distinction, for there is no respite on either front—saving time or saving stress—for a majority of Delhi’s commuters who rely on public transport. In Mumbai, for example, if going from Andheri to Churchgate takes 45 minutes by train, it can take up to two hours by car. So, while a car may be more “luxurious”, it robs you of time. In Delhi, if going from South Delhi to Noida takes 40 minutes by car, it takes 90 minutes by train, including getting to and from the station. So public transport is not only more uncomfortable, it also wastes time. This is primarily why anyone who can afford to buy a private vehicle jumps at the idea in Delhi, as opposed to Mumbai, or other well-connected cities in the world, where vehicles are meant for family outings or weekend recreation. And this is why the AAP’s even-odd solution between January 1 and January 15 is likely to fail. For, while pollution is clearly important enough to override personal comfort, relying on the goodness of the people to embrace a more inefficient system for the “greater good” may be wishful thinking. Add to that the lack of capacity—according to Sarath Guttikunda of the advocacy site urbanemissions.info, it would take 13,000 new buses to take the additional load while the government has managed to arrange for only 6,000 extra buses so far—and this plan has all the makings of another urban bungle. The implications could be potentially disastrous for the larger cause because a hasty rollback due to improper implementation may potentially harm the fight against pollution rather than helping it. Not dissimilar to how the failure of the ambitious Bus Rapid Transit lanes created by the previous Sheila Dikshit government had ended up militating against the push for a more efficient bus service. EVENLY ODD What dilutes the even-odd formula, unless it’s used only as an emergency measure for limited time and with minimal exemptions, is that the numbers simply don’t add up. As Guttikunda explains, vehicular pollution depends on three principal factors—number of vehicles on the road, the distance each vehicle runs, and the emissions from each vehicle. So if 4.4 million of the 8.8 million vehicles in Delhi go off the roads because of the even-odd formula, the assumption is that it would lead to a 50 per cent reduction in vehicular emissions. But there is more to this than a simple division. Once you take into account the various exemptions that the AAP government is planning—for two-wheelers because they form one of the party’s principal constituencies, for women drivers because of safety concerns, and for patients and emergency vehicles such as ambulances and police vans—an estimated 2.5 million vehicles come back on the road, leading to a total reduction of just 2 million. Also, it has been noticed that wherever the even-odd formula has been applied—Mexico City and Bogota are examples—the run of each vehicle increases because it begins to make several rounds to cater to different members of a family. Even if a vehicle’s run increases by an average of 25 per cent, it brings emissions worth an additional 1.5 million vehicles back on the road, thus taking the grand total of reductions to a mere 500,000. Although there are some short-term advantages—fewer exhaust fumes in your immediate vicinity, and lower NO2 and particulate matter—it’s too much trouble for not enough gain. Only if conducted without exemptions for a short period of time—so that people do not buy newer cars or change registration numbers in multiple-vehicle homes—can the even-odd formula be somewhat successful. “We’re not in favour of any exemptions, other than for emergency vehicles,” says CSE’s Roychowdhury, who has met with the Delhi government to help iron out their even-odd formula and other strategies to combat pollution. Vehicular emissions, in any case, roughly account for 25 per cent of Delhi’s pollution, with construction activity and dust the main culprits. Diesel generator sets in homes and offices that spew pollutants through an unrefined motor in a bid to cover for poor power supply, industrial dumping and waste burning also add huge chunks to the pollution pie-chart. But this attempt by the AAP government is still being hailed as ground-breaking by experts, including Roychowdhury, with good reason. It is the first time that any restrictions are being placed on private vehicles in a country where car owners are in the habit of being pampered with a one-time all-India road tax, free parking in homes, cheap parking in markets, and no congestion charges. The move is an acknowledgement that the time to impose checks on vehicles has come, as other cities do across the world, and could serve as a precursor to making owning, maintaining, driving and parking a fleet of private vehicles more expensive and problematic than it currently is. An infinitely more efficient solution for vehicular pollution would be to implement Euro 6 emission norms for automobiles in India because that would bring down particulate matter emission by five times per vehicle over the Euro 4 norms that Delhi currently follows. This can be achieved by persuading oil companies to up their standards, without necessarily having to discard older cars immediately since a Euro 4 vehicle can run on Euro 6 fuels. The Delhi government is also promising to restrict the number of trucks entering the city, shutting coal-based power plants in Rajghat and Badarpur, enforcing the ban on trash burning, and penalising construction violators. But implementing these measures won’t be easy, especially since they will have to rely on the Delhi Police, which is not under the AAP government’s control and has, in fact, been openly inimical towards it. Even controlling the flow of trucks into the city, many of which use sub-standard or mixed fuels, will be a hard cross to bear despite the Supreme Court’s ‘green tax’ that attempts to discourage them from using Delhi as a thoroughfare. The court, on December 16, passed another order that banned the entry of trucks manufactured before 2005 from entering the city, and closing the entry points at NH1 and NH8 for trucks not bound for Delhi. A recent study by the CSE suggests that a total of 115,000 light commercial and heavy trucks enter Delhi every day. The court also stopped the registration of all luxury diesel vehicles larger than 2,000cc, such as luxury SUVs and MUVs, until March. This decision will have huge implications for the auto industry. “Air pollution needs to be tackled at the policy level first,” says Guttikunda. “One-off measures that place the burden on the consumers won’t have wide-reaching impacts.” The solutions he suggests are cleaner fuels; more reliable power supply, which will cut down diesel generator set use; picking up waste because it has the potential to be burned; dust- and pothole-free roads; and improving services that encourage walking and cycling. The important thing is the simultaneity of such measures, making the fight against pollution a crusade instead of piecemeal campaigns against individual contaminants. THE WAY OUT Strange as it may sound, India’s pollution conundrum is not too different from what the US had experienced between the 1940s and the 1970s. It was a time when southern California and the East Coast were both routinely engulfed by smog. On July 26, 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, the smog in Los Angeles was so severe that residents thought the Japanese had attacked using chemical warfare. Another significant incident of all was the Donora Smog in Pennsylvania in 1948. It claimed 20 human and 800 animal lives, and could have consumed thousands of others had the thick wall of smoke not been cleared by unexpected rain after four days. It prompted the beginning of a long fight against air pollution that eventually led to the US Clean Air Act of 1970 and to the creation of a strong United States Environmental Protection Agency, which was given the power to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to airborne contaminants. One of the major problems in India is that while central agencies have been tasked with monitoring pollution, they don't have a mandate to control it. The US Clean Air Act, for example, made it mandatory to develop ways to ensure better air quality across the country without any cost restraints. In India, the CPCB doesn’t have strong enforcement powers. It relies on the government or the courts to take the lead-as the Supreme Court did in 2001 by ordering that all public transport in Delhi must switch to CNG, dramatically improving air quality. But the lack of other reforms, and the sheer volume of vehicles coupled with a terrible central policy that encouraged the rampant production, sale and purchase of diesel vehicles, reversed the trend in 2007. Over the last year, the CPCB has started taking its monitoring role more seriously by setting up a real-time system to measure Air Quality Index (AQI) across eight pollutants in 11 cities. The aim is to make AQIs available for 22 state capitals and 44 other cities with a population exceeding one million. But it’s too little, too late. In all of Delhi’s seven monitoring centres, AQI readings have routinely breached 300 this December—anything above that is considered hazardous—and crossed 600 regularly at Anand Vihar in east Delhi. The solution, suggests Rahul Mehrotra, is to think macro. “Delhi needs imaginative inter-modal transport systems that link buses with metros, and taxis and autos with buses. You shouldn’t lose time and you shouldn’t have to walk more than a few metres to get to your next ride,” he says. Next, he asks for a transport system that is mindful of the relationship between where people live and where they work. “Land-use planning and transportation must go hand in hand. In fact, it should be the only parameter.” And finally, using public transport to develop the city by offering cheap housing near new mass transit systems. It’s important for Delhi that this season of heightened awareness portends holistic changes; that it isn’t an example of intense fire-fighting, only to be forgotten once short-term solutions provide meagre gains. The era of ignorant optimism is over. So, roll over P.B. Shelley and welcome to the grim new world of George R.R. Martin: Winter is coming; Spring may indeed be far behind. —with Kaushik Deka
India’s flagship programme to reduce air pollution has seen slow progress, spurring discussions on airshed-level management for air pollution control. Controlling air pollution beyond city or state lines, and across common airsheds, can help improve monitoring and management in rural areas too, which are left out of the programme, experts say. A new model for airshed governance by the Centre for Policy Research proposes having several “supra-state” institutions for each airshed which aren’t constrained by administrative boundaries, in order to better monitor and control air pollution. As the first phase of India’s National Clean Air Programme for tackling air pollution nears its deadline, with insufficient progress, experts recommend considering air pollution management at an airshed level, as opposed to limiting their actions to political and administrative boundaries. “Emissions from one place can affect people living in another place, but authorities can’t take action if the source of pollution is from across the border,” said Bhargav Krishna, a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. The think tank recently released a policy brief recommending the airshed level approach where pollution is addressed over a common geographic area, irrespective of state boundaries, where a similar level of pollutants are trapped. “Given the scale and nature of the air pollution crisis in India, urgent systemic reforms that adopt an airshed level approach and facilitate inter-state regional cooperation are essential,” notes the paper, recommending regulatory architecture to address pollution at the airshed level. India’s cities are routinely ranked among the world’s worst when it comes to air pollution management. The country has 39 out of 50 of the world’s most polluted cities, with high 2.5 particulate matter (PM) levels, according to this year’s World Air Quality Report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company. Every Indian, on average, loses 5.3 years of their life, because of air pollution, according to the latest Air Quality Life Index, an annual report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, released this week. A reduced life expectancy from air pollution exceeds threats from cardiovascular disease, high systolic blood pressure, smoking and child and maternal malnutrition. To tackle the problem of air pollution, the government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 for non-attainment cities with the worst air pollution levels, with the aim to improve scientific understanding of air pollution and curb emissions at source. The goal of the NCAP is for non-attainment cities to reduce PM levels by 20-30 percent by 2024, compared to 2017 levels. In September 2022, the central government renewed the NCAP, setting a target of 40 per cent emissions reductions by 2026. So far, progress under the programme has been underwhelming – only 39 out of the 131 cities have done apportionment studies to track down sources of pollution and less than 50 percent of the total funds allocated under the NCAP (Rs 652.61 crores) have been utilised. What is an airshed? An airshed, according to the World Bank, is a “common geographic area where pollutants mix and create similar air quality for everyone.” The World Bank’s analysis suggests the South Asian region has six airsheds, four of them falling in India. These are the west/central Indo-Gangetic Plain (including Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab (India), Haryana, part of Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh), the central/eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain (Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bangladesh) middle India 1 (Odisha and Chhattisgarh) and middle India 2 (eastern Gujarat and western Maharashtra). “Air pollution travels long distances within South Asia, crossing municipal, state, and national boundaries, depending on wind, climatology, and cloud chemistry. At any given location, PM2.5 in ambient air originates from several upwind sources extending over several hundred kilometers. This is especially true on and around the IndoGangetic Plain (IGP),” says the World Bank’s report. A 2021 study by researchers from IIT Roorkee found that “while the contributions of local sources (of pollution) were found to dominate in all IGP states, significant contributions were also seen from neighboring IGP states.” Leading contributors to the region were transport (40-50 percent share), industry (5-20 percent) and energy (5-40 percent) with wide variations within each state. “Delineation of an airshed has three basic steps: First, emission quantification to prepare a multi-pollutant emission inventory; second, analysis of meteorological data to evaluate variations and similarities at the local and regional levels; and third, performing air quality modelling to understand the pollution dispersion,” says a report on managing regional air quality by the Centre for Science and Environment. Monitoring air quality beyond cities India has a a network of 438 continuous air quality monitoring systems and another 883 manual stations set up by the Central Pollution Control Board across various cities. In an ideal scenario, India would require “at least 4000 continuous monitoring stations, around 2800 in the urban areas and 1200 in the rural areas, to truly represent the air quality trends,” noted a study from May this year, which proposes improving air quality monitoring for the NCAP through an airshed approach. The study divided 131 non-attainment cities into 104 airsheds, “collectively representing 164 cities and a total population of 295 million.” “These areas are what the city administrators must consider as their immediate vicinity with the potential to influence their air quality the most,” said Sarath Guttikunda, founder of Urban Emissions, a knowledge sharing platform on air pollution, and lead author of the study. Some cities had larger air sheds than others. Delhi, for example, had the largest of all airsheds, while the smallest were in Himachal Pradesh. “If we want to focus on urban air quality, talk to the city officials, and address local centric interventions, then we need to define an urban airshed, which the city administrators can comprehend. Here the city’s actions take center stage. In a regional problem, the states falling within an airshed have to address the problem at broader scales like inter-state cooperation for tackling the regional air pollution problem collaboratively,” Guttikunda added. The study also recommended broadening the scope of monitoring to beyond cities, noting that, “For NCAP to succeed, efforts to monitor and analyse pollution levels must expand to the rural areas.” In absence of requisite funding, the study says India can set up a “hybrid” air monitoring networks, which would include supplementing existing monitoring systems with low cost sensors and combining these readings with satellite measurements. “More monitoring stations mean more data that we have access to understand the problem spatially and temporally. This not only helps in understanding the trends, but also helps in validating the models developed for the city or the region. If we are deviating (from air quality norms), then why, which emission sources are responsible for this, can be studied,” Guttikunda said. Krishna of Centre for Policy Research, while talking to Mongabay India, also commented that air pollution management in India is currently city and urban centric, which leaves out management in rural areas, which are equally affected. “An airshed management approach can improve management in rural areas too,” he said. Airshed governance and its challenges According to the Centre for Science and Environment, before an airshed is designed, “there needs to be collective motivation and incentives to justify the need for airshed air quality management, as it requires a lot of time, resources and planning.” In other words, airshed management involves shared responsibilities across city and state lines. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), set up for the management of air pollution in the National Capital Region and adjoining areas from neighboring states, monitors air pollution and makes interventions periodically for state pollution control boards to follow. But it is only one such body that acts at a regional scale and is largely urban centric, with only four full time committee members heading it. The Centre for Policy Research has proposed setting up a network of institutions that could support the governance of airsheds in India, in the form of “supra state” committees which would have jurisdiction over each regional airshed. These committees would be in charge of rulemaking and planning, monitoring, and knowledge building for the region, while “implementation and enforcement would continue to remain with the SPCBs, ULBs and other agencies,” says the policy brief, released earlier this month. “This institution isn’t just going to be one that passes orders but will also be a knowledge generating institution, because it also takes in a lot of data to develop insights for state level regulators while working with them to effectively implement some of the policy directions,” explained CPR’s Krishna, who was one of the authors of the policy brief. “Unlike the CAQM, this composition of the committees will be substantially different and more diverse. It includes senior bureaucrats from the union government, chief secretaries of the various states in the region and state departments, local body representatives and experts from science, regulation, and health impacts. All of these stakeholders need to be represented in the leadership.” CPR says such committees don’t need to be constituted through an act of Parliament, as the CAQM was, but can be notified directly under the Air Act 1981 as ‘air pollution control areas’ by state governments. This way the committee’s purpose is aligned with the law. These committees “would be the first port of call to resolve any issue of jurisdiction, regulatory overlap or any other form of dispute relating to planning or regulation relating to air quality in the region,” says the policy brief. In case of violations, CPR proposes the committees refer defaulters to the National Gren Tribunal or the Union environment ministry for further action. The Ministry is empowered to issue binding directions to defaulters under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986. But some experts say the concept of airsheds still needs to be better understood by governments before designing for their governance. Pratima Singh, senior research scientist at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), says conversations about airsheds are still very nascent and have arrived at a time when states are designing their own state-level action plans for air pollution management, and learning more about where emissions are coming from. At the moment, most emission inventory studies are at the city level and not at a district, state or regional level. “If, for example, Andhra Pradesh has too much inbound transportation from Karnataka, then what are the solutions Karnataka can propose so that it doesn’t influence Andhra Pradesh? Within cities, departments don’t interact with each other, so how do we make sure governments collaborate on air pollution? Even if an airshed considers multiple states, implementation and coordination between states will be a big challenge,” said Singh.
Most Himalayan towns lack sewerage systems; millions of litres of grey water seeps into the clayey, loamy soil, making landslides inevitable The Centre and governments of Himalayan states should focus on sanitation systems in the Himalayas as well besides taking stock of wanton illegal construction and heavy tourist inflow, an analysis by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based thinktank, has urged. An analysis of a few destinations with high influx of tourists in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim by CSE shows that most Himalayan towns do not have sewerage systems. For instance, only 31.7 per cent of households in Uttarakhand are connected to the sewerage system; the rest depend on on-site sanitation systems. Most households in the towns analysed also have faulty toilets, from which black water seeps into the ground and also affects springs—the prevalent water source in the region. Similarly, most households and small hotels are adopting soak pits to manage grey water—wastewater from bathrooms and kitchen. In some towns, grey water is allowed to flow in unlined open drains, which in turn seeps into the ground. Each hill town receives 150 litres per capita of water supply and 65-70 per cent of this is converted into wastewater, according to guidelines of Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin. Millions of litres of grey water are thus forced into the ground, which is feared to further weaken the topsoil. “In most towns analysed by CSE, the soil is clayey, loamy or metamorphosed schists, phyllites and gneiss. All these are either loose soil or weak rocks. As the huge amounts of water and wastewater seep through the ground, it would make the clayey and loamy soil softer and prone to landslides,” said Sushmita Sengupta from CSE. She added that in the fragile Himalayas it is important to understand the soil and rock below to decide on the type of structures required for managing grey water. Areas analysed Type of on-site sanitation system Quantum of sewage/ wastewater generation Actual population Floating Population Status of grey water management in rural areas Type of soil Uttarakhand1,2 Bhimtal nagar panchayat in Nainital town 36% households linked to sewer system; 64% depend on on-site sanitation system (2% have septic tank with soak pit, 4% lined tank with no outlet, 40% open bottom tank and 18% damaged* containment) Faecal sludge and Septage from on-site sanitation system: 5 kiloliters a day Waste water flowing through sewer system (which consists of grey water, faecal sludge, urine, etc.): 1.3 million litres a day 14,882 200,000 per year, with 1,639 per day tourists during peak season that lasts from mid-April to mid-August Grey water in non-sewered areas is discharged into open drains, which ends up in natural waterbodies of the city Loamy clay, rocky Bageshwar municipality Households depend only on on-site sanitation system (6% on septic tanks connected to soak pits, 14% on fully lined tank without any overflow outlet, 40% connected to open bottom tank, and 40% damaged* containment) Faecal sludge and Septage from on-site sanitation system: 12 kilolitres a day Waste water (Grey Water as the town is non-sewered) 3 million litres a day 25,045 2,500 tourists visit per day for 30 days during the peak season of January to participate in Uttrayani Mela No storm water drains in the city. Grey water is disposed of through open drains or soak pits connected with bathroom, kitchens Silt loam, loam, rocky Doiwala municipal council in Dehradun Households depend only on on-site sanitation system (9% households – septic tanks connected to soak pits, 1% have fully lined tank without any overflow outlet, 2% connected to open bottom tank, and 88% damaged containment). Fecal sludge and septage from on-site sanitation system: 26.6 kilolitres a day Waste water (Grey water as the town is non-sewered): 6.6 million litres a day 61,370 Upto 2,000 per day Grey water disposed of through soak pits connected with bathroom and kitchens or open drains, leading to agricultural fields and the Saung river Clay, loamy clay, sandy clay Srinagar nagar palika in Pauri Garhwal district 36% households linked to sewerage system. Of those depending on on-site sanitation system, 30% have containment with septic tank connected to soak pit or drains, 24% have open bottom tank and 10% have fully lined tanks Faecal sludge and septage generated from on-site sanitation system: 11.3 kilolitres a day Wastewater flowing through sewer system: 4.7 million litres a day 44,000 10,000 per day during peak season of Chota Char Dham Yatra that lasts from April to June In non-sewered areas, grey water is discharged into nallahs connected to sewage treatment plants. Those not connected end up in water streams. Some households have connected their septage overflow into drains. Rocky, loamy sand Devprayag nagar palika in Tehri Garhwal district 56% households linked to sewerage system. Of those depending on on-site sanitation system, 26% depend on lined tank with open bottom, 12% on septic tanks, 6% on fully lined tanks. Of Eight public toilets, 4 are functional (2 connected to sewer network, other 2 to septic tanks) and the rest being considered for renovation. All the 13 hotels, resorts and most houses that cater to the pilgrimage tourists are connected to septic tanks Faecal sludge and septage generated: 1 kilolitres a day Wastewater generated: 3.3 million litres a day 3,059 Peak season is May to October, when 2,000 tourists visit per day Almost 55% conveyed to sewage treatment plants; rest through open drains that ends up in river Rocky, loamy Bhowali nagar palika parishad in Nainital 16% HHs depend on septic tanks connected to soak pits. 30% have open bottom tanks with no outlet or overflow, 54% households have damaged containment systems with no outflow. Faecal sludge and septage generated: 3.3 kilolitres a day Wastewater generated: 0.8 million litres a day 8,457 Up to 1,600 on any peak day during April to August Faecal sludge emptied directly into the sewer manhole in Haldwini city, which further enters into Gaula river without treatment. Grey water is disposed-off through open drains leading to the natural water bodies of the city Loamy clay, rocky New Tehri in Tehri nagar palika 89% households have sewerage connections. 8% connected to community septic tanks and 3% have damaged fully lined tanks Faecal sludge and septage: 8 kilolitres a day Wastewater generated-2.2 million litres a day 20,696 902 tourists per day throughout the year Almost 90% households conveyed to STP through sewer lines and no open drains in the town Loamy, silt loamy, rocky Haldwani nagar nigam in Nainital district Around 20% households have sewerage network. 50% depend on septic tanks connected to soak pits. 8 % fully sealed tanks and 12% open bottom circular tanks and 10 percent damaged containment systems Faecal sludge generated: 110 kilolitres a day Wastewater generated: 31 million litres a day 2,80,604 10,000 per day throughout the year. Grey water carrying through open drains and waste water from sewer lines is disposed at Gaula river without treatment. Clay, loamy clay and rocky Dehradun 34% households connected to sewer network. 12% depend on septic tanks connected to soak pits. 11% depend on septic tanks connected with open drains. 10% depend on open bottom tanks. 33% depend on damaged containment systems Fecal sludge and septage generated: 320 kilolitres a day Wastewater generated: 92 million litres a day 804,379 4,500 per day Gray water in most households directed to soak pits directly and few areas are served with nine nullahs and two storm water drains. Gray water is directed to these through small drains following natural gravity Clay, loamy clay, sandy clay HIMACHAL PRADESH Rural areas of Hamirpur district3 Majorly twin pit and septic tanks in rural areas 12.75MLD in Hamirpur4 423,338 (census 2011) Data not available Soak pits and open drains Rocky Kasauli Cantonment5 Sewer systems connected to sewage holding tanks at 1.5-2 km distance. No information available on treatment Not available 3,500 No floating population Soak pit Clay, loamy clay, rocky Shimla district 29% households depend on faulty septic tank that overflow into open drains. 65-70 %- sewer network 59.19MLD6 This is as per the latest estimates given to NGT. However as per the city sanitation plan very less of the collected reaches the treatment plant and is flowing in open polluting the water bodies.7 224,000 76,000 person throughout the year Grey Water flows in open drains to river Clay, loamy clay, rocky. SIKKIM8 Rural areas of Sikkim More 90% households have septic tanks without soak pits (holding tanks). 2-3% depend on twin-pit; The settlement in rural areas are scattered. No faecal sludge treatment plant; deep burial of emptied fecal sludge. 455,962 Majorly soak pits and kitchen garden Loamy and clayey sand and lateritic Urban areas of Sikkim Households in Mangan, Geyzing and Namchi are connected with septic tanks and now shall be connected to sewer lines. Most households in the remaining 3 districts are connected to sewer lines Not available 150,000 About 0.3 million per month with peak months ranging from March to May and October to December Flows through natural open drains to rivers *Damaged toilets: Containments (fully lined tanks, partially lined tanks and pits, and unlined pits) failed, damaged, collapsed or flooded, with no outlet or overflow
India must estimate and publicise the large gap between the commitments of developed countries and their fair obligation for mitigation The average global temperatures in June and July 2023 were the highest in recorded history. Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago. The average global ocean temperature has smashed records for May, June and July. At home, the Centre for Science and Environment has estimated that extreme weather events were reported at some place or the other on 314 out of 365 days in 2022. Clearly, climate risks are not mere future threats. Thirty years of global cooperation for climate risk mitigation has not worked. Between 1990 and 2019, global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) have gone up from 30 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) to 48 billion tonnes of CO2e. The increase in GHG emissions is almost entirely attributed to developing countries, which were exempt originally from significant mitigation responsibility. This growing role of developing countries in GHG emissions is not a violation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In fact, at the first meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC in 2005, the Berlin mandate recognised the “legitimate needs of the developing countries for the achievement of sustained economic growth and the eradication of poverty”. It also acknowledged that “the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated in developed countries, that the per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low, and that the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet their social and development needs”. However, a modification is necessary and that is to exclude China’s emissions from the developing country emission estimates. Between 1990 and 2019, China’s per capita emissions shot up from 2.8 to 8.9 tonnes of CO2e, surpassing the per capita emissions of Western Europe in 2019. China’s emissions increase during this period represents 54 per cent of the total global increase in emissions. There is no justification for lumping together China and India, as is commonly done by Western activists, since India’s per capita emissions in 2019 are still lower than what China’s per capita emissions were in 1990. My submission is that the fundamental challenge for climate risk management still is the need for stronger action by developed countries, with just one modification — include China in this group. Between 1990 and 2020, the emissions of GHG of the Annex 1 developed countries did decline by about 2724 million tonnes of CO2e. But it is worth noting that much of this is because Russia and the East European countries, which were part of Annex 1, experienced a massive decline in emissions, not because of climate-friendly policies but because of the collapse of their energy-intensive industries. In fact, their emission reductions account for over 80 per cent of the Annex 1 country emission reductions. Only the Western European countries show a significant fall in emissions, mainly after 2007. The developed countries and China are still the major problem for managing climate risks. The per capita emissions were 12.4 tonnes of CO2e in 2019 for Annex 1 countries, and 8.9 tonnes for China, well above the emissions of 2.5 tonnes of CO2e by India and 4.3 tonnes CO2e by other developing countries. Since climate risks depend on cumulative emissions, one must also note that the liability and responsibility of Annex 1 countries is even greater if one looks at the emissions before 1990. Unfortunately, climate justice has not driven global climate diplomacy and the Paris agreement has shifted the focus of climate diplomacy in two ways — diluting the top-down pressure on mitigation on the developed countries, and including the developing countries in mitigation promises. The neglect of climate justice is also manifest in the net-zero announcements of the high-emitting developing countries. Looking ahead at the future, keeping the global temperature increase below 1.5°C would require the total global emissions to stay below 500 billion tonnes of CO2e, which works out to an average of 1.8 tonnes per capita between now and the target net-zero date. A calculation reported some time ago in this paper shows that the current net-zero dates announced by the major emitters would mean “the emissions of US will amount to 5-7 tonnes, 4-6 tonnes for China, 2-3 tonnes for the EU and UK, 5-8 tonnes for Russia , and 4-5 tonnes for Japan. India is rather better placed to meet this goal as its average per capita per year emissions will be in the 1.5-2.3 tonnes range1”. Please note that this does not involve any liability for historical emissions, which the US and other developed countries have stoutly refused to accept. The possibility that we will not contain the global average temperature increase below 1.5- 2°C is becoming more probable. The threat of climate change leading to the global ecosystem crossing some critical tipping points is now real. We need major changes in production and consumption patterns in both developed and developing countries, which will not be done voluntarily by those with the power to make decisions in governments and corporations. In some ways, the challenge is greater in developed countries, where the present production and consumption patterns enhance climate risks. In developing countries, on the other hand, the main issue is reorienting future development, which is easier than redesigning the already existing patterns of production and consumption. The simple fact is that our dependence on an agreement between national governments to contain climate risks has not worked. The answer lies in promoting a mass movement for climate risk reduction in the developed world and China. One outcome of the past 30 years of climate cooperation is the growth in the number of activist groups, science-based monitoring groups, and legal impact, like the Netherlands court judgments on Shell and on the government enforcing substantial emission reduction obligations. But the most influential non-governmental organisations and research bodies with a global perspective are based in the developed West. They often reflect the biased views of Western powers about who is falling short on commitments and responsible for escalating climate risks. What we need is the broadening of these pressure generating developments with greater global participation by developing country activist groups and research-oriented organisations, particularly in India. Our goal should be not just to publicise what we are doing, but to estimate and project globally the large shortfall in the announced commitments of the US, China, and other developed countries relative to what their obligations should be under a fair distribution of mitigation responsibility. We must shift the focus of global opinion more towards pressure on the Annex 1 countries and China. This is not an excuse for missing out on what we can and should do for climate risk mitigation and adaptation. It is basically a call for incorporating more specific terms about what climate justice requires by way of “common but differentiated responsibility”.
Report calls for more corrective measures to prevent 2014 flood-like disasters The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has stated that unplanned development across Kashmir could have serious consequences. The report of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs, has called for taking more corrective measures to prevent the 2014 flood-like disasters. The report talks at length about the haphazard developmental activities, including economic and infrastructure projects, taking place without sufficient consideration for environmental safety and sustainability. “These activities include mining operations on the floodplains of the River Jhelum, construction of railway lines, and poorly-planned urbanisation,” the NIDM report reads. It states that most of these developmental activities are carried out with little regard for the environmental, geological, geomorphological, and ecological conditions of the region. “The ongoing construction boom, fuelled by indiscriminate mining of sand, gravel, and boulders from riverbeds, weakens the existing flood control infrastructure, making the rivers more susceptible to flash floods,” the report states. According to the report, the rapid urbanisation in Kashmir, encroachment of water bodies in land adjoining river banks, and the disappearance of wetlands have disrupted the natural drainage patterns. While the existing flood control infrastructure in Kashmir was overwhelmed during the 2014 floods, leading to a hazardous situation in the region, the report calls for long-term measures. These measures include the construction of an alternate flood channel from Dogripora to Wullar, improvement of the drainage system in urban areas in the Jhelum basin, restoration of natural drainage, conservation and restoration of degraded wetlands in the Jhelum basin, sewage treatment, and city and town planning that considers flood and earthquake vulnerability, among other structural and non-structural measures. Executive Director, NIDM, Taj Hassan in the foreword of the report says that the 2014 flood caused 287 deaths, adversely affecting around 20 lakh people. “It paralysed Srinagar city for several days. Central government, several states, and union territories came forward to help J&K. The documentation of the 2014 Kashmir flood has drawn lessons for future course of action and for managing similar events in a well-coordinated manner,” he writes. The 2014 floods also severely affected the healthcare system with 102 institutions of the Directorate of Health Services in Kashmir being impacted. After the 2014 devastating floods, an analysis by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had said that unprecedented rainfall, unplanned urbanisation and lack of preparedness are the basic reasons behind the floods. “In the last 100 years, more than 50 per cent of the lakes, ponds and wetlands of Srinagar have been encroached upon for constructing buildings and roads. The banks of the Jhelum River have been taken over in a similar manner, vastly reducing the river’s drainage capacity. Naturally, these areas have suffered the most,” the CSE had said. Elaborating on the unpreparedness of J&K in dealing with such events, the CSE officials had said that J&K does not have a flood forecasting system and “its disaster management system is also rudimentary”. “The Kashmir floods are a grim reminder that climate change is now hitting India harder. In the last 10 years, several extreme rainfall events have rocked the country and this is the latest calamity in that series,” the CSE had said.