• Down To Earth

We’ll need binding promises for climate action to work

While climate chaos gallops ahead, climate action is stalled," said United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres at a recent speech to mark the release of a report called Emissions Gap 2022 (EG-2022). Climate chaos ran amok in 2022. Hurricane Ian in Florida, a summer of record temperatures in Europe, unprecedented floods in China and Pakistan, widespread floods in Central and West Africa, and a year-long drought in China have been only some of the main disasters. Climate disasters to date include 14 severe weather events, six floods, five droughts, three tropical cyclones and a windstorm. A report from the Centre for Science and Environment says that India clocked extreme-weather impacts on a startling 88% of the 273 days this year until the end of September. The cost in terms of lives and property is mounting. At least 16,000 people died in the European heatwave and now over 2,000 have perished in Pakistan’s floods. An estimate of economic costs is difficult to make so soon, but it is likely to cross $500 billion this year when the final bills for Hurricane Ian are counted. Insurance costs, already skyrocketing due to high inflation, the pandemic and burdens of the Ukraine conflict, are poised to rise even further, with record reinsurance claims being presented. With reinsurance companies coming under such pressure, the very structure of the reinsurance industry may require governments to step in as insurers ‘of last resort’.

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Climate-vulnerable India struck by natural disasters 'almost daily'

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a public interest research and advocacy organisation, said that extreme weather struck India on 241 of 273 days from January to October 1. Together the disasters claimed 2,755 lives, affected 1.8 million hectares of crops, destroyed 416,667 houses and killed 69,007 livestock. Severe damage Released ahead of the 27th Conference of the Parties (Cop27) climate summit that opens this weekend in Egypt, the report underscored that India is suffering severe damage due to the climate crisis. “This is the watermark of climate change. It is not about a single event but about the increased frequency of the events – that what we saw as the one-in-100-years extreme event has now been compressed to become one in five years or even less,” said CSE’s director general Sunita Narain. Climate pledges still 'nowhere near' enough to limit rising temperature to 1.5C Storms, floods and fires: Have planetary conditions really become more extreme? Being both a climate-vulnerable as well as a high-emitting country, experts say India occupies a unique position around the global climate policy negotiating table. About 80 percent of India’s population live in regions highly vulnerable to extreme disasters like severe flooding or heatwaves. “Worse, it is now all coming together – each month is breaking a new record. This in turn is breaking the backs of the poorest who are worst impacted and are fast losing their capacities to cope with these repeated and frequent events,” Narain said. A man walks across a dry river bed amid a heatwave in New Delhi in May 2022. A man walks across a dry river bed amid a heatwave in New Delhi in May 2022. AP - Manish Swarup Economic losses According to the 2022 Climate Transparency Report (CTR), released last month by a partnership of climate analysis organisations in G20 countries, India's losses were highest in four sectors: services, manufacturing, agriculture and construction. “Losses to earnings from heat-related labour capacity reduction were the highest in India among G20 nations in 2021,” said the CTR analysis. India’s food security and economy to be impacted by climate change: IPCC Loss of potential income in the services, manufacturing, agriculture and construction sectors last year cost India 5.4 percent of its GDP, ahead of Indonesia (1.6 percent) and Saudi Arabia (1 percent). Heat exposure in India led to the loss of 167 billion potential labour hours in 2021, a 39 percent increase from the decade between 1990 and 1999. And at 3°C of warming, the exposure to heatwaves will increase to almost 30 percent of India's population, the report said. Climate funds for developing countries? Climate finance remains a major source of contention within the group of the world’s major advanced and developing economies. A key issue for India at Cop27 will be how to finance both adapting to climate change and limiting fossil fuel emissions. India wants the $100 billion-a-year pledge of climate funds for developing countries, a promise made in 2009 that hasn’t yet been fulfilled despite being two years past its deadline. Climate and debt crises converge for half of the world's poorest Will climate justice be yet another victim of the energy crisis? “New Delhi should vocalize its support for climate finance and energy transition at the summit. According to the CTR report, India is the only G20 nation achieving its climate mitigation commitments in the Paris Accords without external support,” said Phalak Vyas, who researches international relations at Pandit Deendayal Energy University. “India has successfully improved its renewable energy usage and can use its experience to act as a bridge between the G20 and developing nations.” India will soon begin its one-year-long tenure as head of the G20, starting in December 2022 until November 2023. India’s foreign ministry has indicated that India’s presidency will focus on climate finance, energy security and green hydrogen in the energy sector.

• Down To Earth

Climate-vulnerable India struck by natural disasters 'almost daily'

India recorded extreme weather events nearly every day in the first nine months of the year, according to a new report, including heatwaves, cold waves, cyclones, lightning, heavy rainfall, floods and landslides. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a public interest research and advocacy organisation, said that extreme weather struck India on 241 of 273 days from January to October 1. Together the disasters claimed 2,755 lives, affected 1.8 million hectares of crops, destroyed 416,667 houses and killed 69,007 livestock. Severe damage Released ahead of the 27th Conference of the Parties (Cop27) climate summit that opens this weekend in Egypt, the report underscored that India is suffering severe damage due to the climate crisis. “This is the watermark of climate change. It is not about a single event but about the increased frequency of the events – that what we saw as the one-in-100-years extreme event has now been compressed to become one in five years or even less,” said CSE’s director general Sunita Narain.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

किसानों को जागरूक करने की जरूरत, उन्हें पराली का विकल्प मुहैया कराना होगा: विवेक चट्टोपाध्याय

राजधानी दिल्ली और आसपास के इलाके पिछले कुछ वर्षों की तरह एक बार फिर ‘‘गैस चैंबर’’ में तब्दील हो चुके हैं। जहरीली हवा ने लोगों का जीना मुहाल कर दिया है लेकिन राजनीतिक दल एक-दूसरे पर दोषारोपण की नूरा-कुश्ती में मशगूल हैं। इन्हीं सब मुद्दों पर वायु गुणवत्ता विशेषज्ञ और नयी दिल्ली स्थित ‘सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट’ के स्वच्छ वायु कार्यक्रम से जुड़े वरिष्ठ कार्यक्रम प्रबंधक विवेक चट्टोपाध्याय से भाषा के पांच सवाल और उनके जवाब: सवाल: दिल्ली और आसपास का इलाका एक बार फिर ‘‘गैस चैंबर’’ में तब्दील हो चुका है। हर साल यही स्थिति होती है। लाखों रुपये खर्च होते हैं लेकिन नतीजा ढाक के तीन पात। क्या कहेंगे आप? जवाब: इसका प्रमुख कारण यह है कि दिल्ली में तकरीबन 1.4 करोड़ गाड़ियां हैं और कई सारे उद्योग हैं। राष्ट्रीय राजधानी का यह क्षेत्र एक आर्थिक हब बन गया है। निर्माण कार्य यहां सालों भर चलते हैं और कूड़ा जलाया जाना यहां आम बात है। ये सब एक बड़ी समस्या बनती जा रही है क्योंकि इसका प्रबंधन ठीक से नहीं हो रहा है। इन चीजों की वजह से दिल्ली और एनसीआर क्षेत्र पर खुद का जो प्रदूषण का भार है, वह बहुत ज्यादा होता है। अब ऊपर से पराली जलाई जाती है। इससे स्थिति और गंभीर हो जाती है। इस समय मौसम भी प्रतिकूल रहता है। सवाल: पंजाब और हरियाणा में पराली जलाया जाना भी दिल्ली-एनसीआर में प्रदूषण का बड़ा कारक है। आप क्या कहेंगे? जवाब: हमें यह समझना होगा कि किसान पराली जलाते क्यों है? हमें इसका उपाय करना होगा। सरकार द्वारा पराली को खत्म करने के लिए राज्यों को जो मशीन दी जाती हैं उनका इस्तेमाल हो रहा है या नहीं हो रहा है और नहीं हो रहा है तो क्यों नहीं हो रहा है। इस पर निगरानी आवश्यक है। इसके लिए अगर पंचायत स्तर पर सहयोग की आवश्यकता पड़ती है तो किसानों को यह मदद दी जानी चाहिए। साथ ही किसानों को पराली न जलाने के लिए जागरूक करने की भी आवश्यकता है। इसके अलावा हमें किसानों को इसका वैकल्पिक समाधान देना होगा। एक तंत्र विकसित करना होगा ताकि वे पराली न जलाएं और वैकल्पिक उपायों का इस्तेमाल करें। यह स्थिति इसलिए है क्योंकि सरकार के प्रयासों में कमी है। यह एक तरह से सरकार की विफलता है, पूरे तंत्र की विफलता है। सवाल: पराली जलाना तो अपराध की श्रेणी में है। इसका मतलब है कि यह प्रशासन की विफलता है? जवाब: दरअसल, आजीविका से संबंधित जो चीज होती है उसमें अपराध के बावजूद नियमों को लागू करने में दिक्कत होती है। आप उद्योगों का या गाड़ियों का चालान कर सकते हैं लेकिन किसानों के साथ ऐसा नहीं कर सकते। क्योंकि यह किसानों की आजीविका से जुड़ा मसला है। प्रशासन को भी देखना होता है कि कानून का क्रियान्वयन वह किस स्तर तक कर सकता है। वह एक साथ हजारों किसानों को जेल नहीं भेज सकता। यह होना भी नहीं चाहिए। क्योंकि यह उनकी आजीविका से जुड़ा हुआ है। यह व्यावहारिक भी नहीं है क्योंकि किसान अन्नदाता है। कानून लागू करने वालों के लिए भी यह बहुत मुश्किल होता है। क्योंकि उन्हें ऐसे मामलों में संवेदनशील भी होना पड़ता है। मैं कहता हूं कि वैकल्पिक व्यवस्था की जाए ताकि यह न हो। हमें इस दिशा में हमें देखना होगा। सवाल: हर साल यह घटनाक्रम होता है और इसे लेकर राजनीति भी खूब होती है। एक-दूसरे पर दोषारोपण होता है। इस परिस्थिति पर आप क्या कहेंगे? जवाब: राजनीतिक दलों को इसमें फायदा और नुकसान नहीं ढूंढ़ना चाहिए। अगर कोई पार्टी किसी भी राज्य में है तो उसकी यह जिम्मेदारी बनती है कि लोगों को कम से कम सांस लेने में परेशानी न हो। वे अपने कर्तव्य के दायरे में आने वाले सारे उपाय करें ताकि प्रदूषण कम हो, क्योंकि यह स्वास्थ्य से जुड़ा मुद्दा है। इसमें कोई भी राजनीति नहीं होनी चाहिए। दूसरा मुद्दा है समन्वय का। हर साल यह समस्या होती है लेकिन आखिरकार संबंधित राज्यों में समन्वय क्यों नहीं होता। केंद्र सरकार को एक नियम बनाना होगा। जैसा, नदियों के मामले में है। केंद्र सरकार सभी राज्यों के साथ बैठकर नियम बनाए और समन्वय स्थापित करे। प्रदूषण फैलाने वाले राज्यों की जवाबदेही तय करे। इसे अगर कानून के तहत लाया जाए तो और उत्तम होगा। ऐसा करना असंभव भी नहीं है क्योंकि कई सारे कामों पर करोड़ों रुपये खर्च होते हैं। हम कम से कम स्वच्छ वायु के लिए इतना तो कर ही सकते हैं। हम स्वच्छ वायु में निवेश करेंगे तो इससे जीडीपी में भी वृद्धि होगी। आज तो उसे नुकसान हो रहा है। भावी पीढ़ी भी प्रभावित हो रही है। सवाल: बतौर एक विशेषज्ञ, आपकी सरकारों को क्या सलाह होगी? जवाब: स्वच्छ हवा हम सबका मौलिक अधिकार है। जैसे ‘राइट टू लाइफ’ है। जो राज्य प्रदूषण रोकने में अच्छा काम करें उन्हें हमें प्रोत्साहित करना होगा और जो नहीं कर रहे हैं उन्हें सबक सिखाना भी जरूरी है। इसके अलावा हमें स्थानीय स्तर पर बेहद गंभीरता से काम करना होगा। शहरों के स्तर पर चुनिंदा उपायों से काम नहीं बनने वाला है। यह एक क्षेत्रीय समस्या है और इसे इसी नजर से देखा जाना चाहिए। साथ ही कई चीजें ऐसी हैं कि आप अचानक नहीं कर सकते। जैसे, सार्वजनिक परिवहन आप अचानक नहीं बढ़ा सकते। इसके लिए आपको पर्याप्त समय चाहिए। निर्माण कार्य से होने वाले प्रदूषण पर अचानक लगाम नहीं लगा सकते। दिल्ली में कूड़े का ढेर है और इसे जलाया जाता है क्योंकि इसका कोई उचित प्रबंधन नहीं होता। इन सब चीजों को लेकर आपको लगातार काम करते रहना होगा, तब जाकर आपको कोई असर दिखेगा।

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

From the India Today archives (2015) | Air pollution: Why Delhi is choking

The severely poor air quality in the national capital is yet another reminder that Delhi is a test case for urgent pollution reforms 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. ADVERTISEMENT 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. ADVERTISING 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. ADVERTISEMENT 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.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Delhi pollution needs long-term steps, targetting select sectors not way forward, say experts

Is banning BS IV diesel vehicles too little and late for addressing the pollution problem in Delhi? Experts say resuspended dust from broken roads and inadequate waste management are amongst the key aspects that need to be addressed. As Delhi continues to reel under the effect of severe air pollution, the Commission for Air Quality Management undertook several measures envisaged by Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan. But is banning BS IV diesel vehicles enough to address the current situation and stabilise the pollution levels. According to a study by the Centre of Science and Environment indicates that when pollution concentration from all sources (local, NCR and beyond) are added, Delhi’s vehicles account for nearly 17 per cent of total PM2.5 concentration. If just the local sources are taken into account, the share of vehicular pollution shoots up to almost as high as 50 percent as per the study. ADVERTISING Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, CSE pointed out that Delhi has close to 1.5 crore registered vehicles (as per the Vahan database) and sees an annual addition of five lakh vehicles a year (of which 97 percent are personal vehicles, mainly two-wheelers and cars), “has failed to build transportation strategies to scale for transformative changes and build an effective public transport system.” With more than 200 lakh population (estimate of World Population Prospect by the UN, 2018), the city is estimated to be generating at least 276 lakh daily travel trips.

• Down To Earth

COP27: Five Issues On India's Radar

Along with financing for climate change-induced loss and damage, India is expected to hammer out agreements on just transition and new carbon markets in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. Last year's annual global climate change conference was held on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year's Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt, which will begin on Sunday, November 6, is significant as it is being held in the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that has resulted in a global energy crisis at a time when the world is trying to move away from fossil fuels, the major source of energy for the world. At the conference, India will, among other things, push for a just transition deal--which means ensuring energy for a developing country and protecting its workforce employed in fossil-fuel related industries--as it moves to renewable sources of energy, climate finance for adaptation, mitigation and financial assistance for climate change-induced loss and damage. In addition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to use India's 'lifestyle for environment' or LiFE mission, which refers to adopting a sustainable lifestyle, to position the country as going beyond policy-making as it advocates for individual and community-level change to help the global fight against climate change. Climate change negotiations are not just a diplomatic exercise for India; the country is experiencing the adverse effects of climate change every year with a 55% increase in heat-related deaths between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021, and income loss equivalent to 5.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) due to extreme heat, an emailed press release on research published by The Lancet said. India had extreme weather events on 242 of the 273 days between January 1 and September 30, 2022. Domestically, India has set its own ambitious climate pledges, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and a net-zero goal (carbon neutrality, referring to all carbon emissions either being eliminated or absorbed and not released into the environment) for 2070, but it also needs external financial help for its people to adapt to the effects of global warming and to mitigate losses. Lifestyle to combat climate change The Indian government is pushing Mission LiFE, a belief that apart from policy interventions at a government level, individuals and communities, by changing their behaviour to reduce carbon emissions, can lend a hand in the fight against climate change. The movement was launched in October 2022 by PM Narendra Modi along with United Nations Chief Antonio Gueterres. Not only is LiFE being promoted at COP27, it has also officially been made part of India's NDC and might also be on its agenda for India's presidency at G20. G20 or the group of 20 is an intergovernmental platform comprising 19 countries and the European Union that works to address issues like climate change, the global economy and financial stability. India will hold the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. LiFE's three-pronged strategy includes nudging individuals to practise simple yet effective environment-friendly actions in their daily lives (demand), such as using public transport and choosing sustainable products like cloth bags over plastic; enabling industries and markets to respond swiftly to the reducing demand (supply) for environmentally unsustainable products like disposable/single-use products and packaging; and to influence government and industrial policy to support both sustainable consumption and production (policy). "LiFE is a positive effort but it comes with certain caveats," said Avantika Goswami, a programme manager for climate change at the New Delhi-based research organisation, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). "The IPCC report identifies what impact behavioural change can have on emissions reduction. But I believe that this should apply to wealthy individuals and countries who have extremely high per capita emissions." India's per capita emissions, at 2.4 tonne carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), are far below the world average, at 6.3 tCO2e, in 2020, noted the 2022 Emissions Gap report by the United Nations Environment Programme. The US, on the other hand, stands at 14 tCO2e, almost six times India's per capita emissions. "The IPCC report also states that individual behavioural change is insufficient for climate change mitigation unless embedded in structural and cultural change. So it requires enabling infrastructure to help individuals make the right low-carbon choices," such as better footpaths or first and last mile connectivity to promote walking or use of public transport, added Goswami. "There can also be the danger of shifting of accountability [to citizens] because what then are our larger entities, authorities doing?" Carbon markets A carbon market allows countries and companies, that are unable to meet emissions targets, to buy carbon credits from those that have reduced emissions and have 'credits' for sale. For instance, from 2002 to 2012, Indian companies and the government together had earned hundreds of crores worth of carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)--what carbon markets under the Kyoto Protocol were known as–by reducing industrial emissions, switching to renewable energy, energy efficiency in households and protecting forests, and sold some of them as credits to countries or companies that were likely to exceed their emission targets. Ahead of COP27, in August 2022, the lower house of the Indian Parliament passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, which if enacted will empower the union government to launch a National Carbon Market to trade credits domestically. Carbon markets have been one of the most debated topics in UNFCCC negotiations because of concerns over double counting of the traded emissions by buying and selling countries, human rights abuses in, and falsifying claims about, reducing emissions under the carbon market mechanism under the Kyoto protocol that preceded the Paris agreement. It was also on the agenda at COP26, specifically Article 6 of the Paris agreement, which focuses on setting up market mechanisms to meet nationally determined goals of countries. "For the European Union, the international carbon markets are instruments of decarbonisation, but for developing nations it is an instrument of climate finance," says Vaibhav Chaturvedi of the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). Many of the key issues in the Article 6 Rulebook were resolved at COP26 last year (such as rules on transferring mitigation credits between countries and rules on incentivising the private sector), noted Aman Srivastava, fellow at the New Delhi based think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR). Lingering issues include how to transition CDM credits to the carbon market mechanism under the Paris agreement, he said, adding that discussions will also focus on "how countries can make national arrangements to participate in Article 6". Moving away from fossil fuels through a just transition The Russian invasion of Ukraine added a layer of complexity to global efforts to cut fossil fuel, and specifically coal, consumption. Russia has been by far the world's largest exporter of fossil fuels, especially to the European countries. As European countries imposed sanctions, Russia curtailed supply of natural gas to Europe. Many were pushed back into reliance over oil and coal for energy. To meet its growing energy requirement and shortage of domestic coal, India imported coal earlier this year. The UNEP report had also stated that India's coal emissions in 2021 exceeded pre-pandemic levels. At the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris in 2015, the world had aimed to limit global warming well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, as a temperature increase beyond this limit would mean more frequent and intense climate-related risks like heat waves and floods. But the world is not on track to achieve this aim, according to the UNEP 2022 Emissions Gap report. New and updated pledges submitted by countries will only reduce 10% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, when a 45% reduction is required. As part of its pledge, India too had committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 45% by 2030, from 2005 levels. It has also pledged to have about 50% of installed electric power from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. "We are on track to reduce the emissions intensity of our economy as per our target. But domestically, we could show higher ambition by having non-fossil fuel generation targets instead of capacity targets," said Goswami of CSE. Installed capacity refers to what an entity is capable of producing and the actual generation, or what that entity achieves, may differ drastically. At the moment, India's installed capacity of fossil fuel sources (coal, lignite, gas and diesel) stands at 57.9%, and of non-fossil fuels stands at 42.1% However, if we look at actual generation, coal still dominates our power generation while renewable energy is at 26%. India had toned down its ambitions for non fossil-fuel based energy of 500 GW by 2030 that PM Modi had announced at COP26, to reach 50% (407 GW) of its estimated electricity demand of 817 megawatt in 2030, when India's official climate pledges were sanctioned by the Union cabinet. In addition, at COP26, India insisted on a "phase-down" of coal use rather than "phase-out", because unlike developed nations, India's energy needs are not yet met. Even though India builds clean energy infrastructure, the existing fossil fuel capacity cannot be simply phased out or substituted. At COP27, India will push for climate finance to achieve this phase down in coal. A June 2022 report by BloombergNEF stated that India will require a $223 billion investment between 2022-2029 to meet the wind and solar capacity under the updated NDCs. The G7 countries, which includes Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan, UK and the US declared in June 2022 that they will launch a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with India, South Africa, Indonesia, Senegal, Argentina at COP27. The partnership aims to reduce dependency on coal and finance the rapid deployment of clean energy in India, and experts say we will know more about the partnership at COP27. Transparency, accountability and scaling up of climate finance The issue of financial help to cut emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change for developing countries will be at the top of the agenda at COP27. India has announced its intention to raise the issue of finance and stated that countries must agree on the definition of climate finance. Tracking climate finance is difficult because there is no clear definition on what counts as climate finance. The UNFCCC's operational definition, that "climate finance aims at reducing emissions and enhancing sinks of greenhouse gases and aims at reducing the vulnerability of, and maintaining and increasing the resilience of, human and ecological systems to negative climate change impacts," is too broad and leaves room for ambiguity, according to a 2022 study by Anis Choudhary and Jomo Kwame Sundaram. The two other issues with climate finance are its scale and its delivery, experts told us. In 2009, developed countries had pledged to deliver to developing countries an annual climate fund of $100 billion per year by 2020 for funding climate adaptation and mitigation measures. Between 2013 and 2019, only 65% of the finance was delivered on average by developed nations to developing nations. The target was then deferred by three years to 2023. According to the Adaptation Gap 2022 report released by the United Nations Environment Programme on November 3, the combined adaptation and mitigation finance in 2020 fell short by at least $17 billion of the $100 billion. Further, the $100 billion promise is now inadequate because developing countries are estimated to need $600 billion a year from 2020 to 2050 to decarbonise just their energy sectors. At COP26, Prime Minister Modi demanded $1 trillion in finance from developed countries. The African group of countries also called for a $1.3 trillion a year in climate finance to be made available from 2025. "The debate at COP27 will not just be about numbers but that some action should happen," said Chaturvedi of CEEW. "Finance should start flowing in. Private finance and low-cost finance should also come in." Reparations for loss and damage A subset of climate finance, loss and damage finance is one of the other issues which will be at the centre of developing nation's attention at COP27, according to an official press release from the Indian environment ministry. 'Loss and Damage' reflects the impact of changing weather on communities due to climate change, which cannot be avoided by undertaking measures to reduce greenhouse gas (termed as mitigation) or adjusting to climate change impacts (termed as adaptation), according to several studies. India is one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, with the poor being the most at risk. For instance, unseasonal rains and extreme weather events are culminating in heavy loss for farmers and fishers from Maharashtra, IndiaSpend had reported in October 2022, and loss and damage finance can help compensate for these losses. The demand for finance to cover loss and damage by developing countries has been a long-standing one. At COP26, there was some progress when the group of developing countries known as the G77, and China, called for a formal 'loss and damage finance facility' to be set up to provide financial support to vulnerable nations. However, due to opposition from the developed countries, such as the EU, US and UK, leaders failed to establish a relief fund to help developing countries deal with climate change-related loss and damage. "The disproportionate impact of climate change calls for mainstreaming loss and damage into action and should be an important component of the (COP27) negotiations," said Abinash Mohanty, a public policy expert in climate risks and adaptation, and a reviewer of the IPCC's sixth assessment report on the impacts of climate change.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Delhi Air Pollution: The Main Cause This Year And Road Ahead | Explained

According to the study, much of the pollution between October 21 to 26 from within the city was caused by vehicular emissions. Year after year Delhi starts choking around the month of October-November owing to the rise in air pollution. This year is no different with AQI already entering the severe category with no respite in sight. The government seems to wake up only after the situation has gone out of control. The whole debate around weather is very seasonal and has very little significance when it comes to tackling a very serious problem of bad air in the capital. Let’s try and understand what actually contributes to the pollution in Delhi. How much of it is its own contribution? What are the other factors and road ahead for Delhi? The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has come up with a study which focuses on the main factors which contributed to the rise in air pollution in Delhi. According to the study, much of the pollution between October 21 to 26 from within the city was caused by vehicular emissions. CSE’s analysis of data from October 21 to 26 found that of the local sources of pollution, vehicular emissions may have contributed around 51 per cent to the PM2.5 levels in Delhi. The analysis also found that Delhi’s local sources caused around 32.9 per cent of the pollution in the city.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Why Is Delhi Choking? It’s Not What You Think! Two Wheelers Are a Major Culprit

"It is well known that two wheelers are predominantly the cause of vehicular pollution in Delhi," an expert said. The majority of the pollution enveloping Delhi during the week of Diwali came from vehicles, indicated an analysis released by the think tank 'Centre for Science and Environment' (CSE) on Friday, 2 November - and a bulk of this automobile pollution was generated by two wheel vehicles in the city. A statement by the CSE iterated: "...if only Delhi’s local sources are considered, the transport sector topped the ranks, with vehicles contributing around half of the PM2.5 concentration from local sources. The indicative data shows that their daily share varied between 49.3 per cent and 53 per cent during that week." Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) In a city where two-wheelers make up 70 per cent of annual transport additions, it becomes important to examine their role in polluting Delhi's air. "It is well known that two wheelers are predominantly the cause of vehicular pollution in Delhi," Vivek Chattopadhyay, Senior Programme Manager at CSE's Clean Air Programme told The Quint. In the last few days, the national capital's Air Quality Index (AQI) touched alarming levels, with most parts of the city recording an AQI of over 400. On Friday, Delhi Chief Minister announced closure of all primary schools, as the city hurtled into a health crisis amidst rising pollution.

• Sustainable Habitat

मार्च से अब तक डेढ़ दर्जन हीट वेव झेल चुकी है दिल्ली

देश की राजधानी में इस वर्ष गर्मी ने बीते कई वर्षों के रिकॉर्ड तोड़ दिए हैं। इस वर्ष पहली हीट वेव 11 मार्च को ही आ गई थी। जोकि बढ़ते वैश्विक तापमान का परिचायक है। यह बीते 122 साल में पहली बार था जब किसी वर्ष की शुरूआत में मार्च की 11 तारीख को ही पहली हीट वेव आ गई हो। दिल्ली में मार्च-अप्रैल समेत मई के पहले हफ्ते तक तकरीबन डेढ़ दर्जन हीट वेव आ चुकी हैं। जून में मानसून आने तक जारी रहेंगी हीट वेव बीते हफ्ते हुई बूंदाबादी और असानी चक्रवात के असर के कारण मौसम में बदलाव जरूर देखने को मिला है। लेकिन आगामी हफ्ते में मौसम विभाग की चेतावनी है कि फिर से हीट वेव आ रही है। यह हीट वेव लगातार जून में मानसून आने तक जारी रहने वाली हैं। क्योंकि इस समय धरती की सतह औद्योगिक पीरियड से 1.09 डिग्री ज्यादा गर्म हो चुकी है। इस गर्मी में वेट बल्व की भी समस्या आ रही है। वेट बल्व तापमान में बढ़ोत्तरी से होगी परेशानी वेट बल्व में वातावरण के तापमान में मौजूद 35 फीसद ह्यूमीडिटी ही मनुष्य बर्दास्त कर सकता है। लेकिन इससे अधिक ह्यूमीडिटी होने पर शरीर इसे बर्दास्त नहीं कर पाएगा। एनसीडीसीआर की रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक देश में अत्यधिक गर्मी के कारण 2015 से 2019 के बीच 3775 लोगों की मौत हो चुकी है। गांवों की अपेक्षा शहरों का तापमान अधिक पर्यावरणविदें का कहना है कि इस बढ़े हुए तापमान में शहरों में बहुत परेशानी हो रही है। कंक्रीटीकरण और औद्योगिकीकरण के कारण शहरों में इस समय तापमान मैदानी इलाकों की बजाय दिन में 1-3 डिग्री 'यादा गर्म और रात में यह मैदानी इलाके की बजाय शहरी इलाके में 12 डिग्री तक अधिक गर्म रहता है। घरों के डिजाइन में बदलाव जरूरी होगा सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरमेंट में सस्टेनेबल बिल्डिंग और हैबीटेट प्रोग्राम के निदेशक रजनीश सरीन का मानना है कि हीट वेव के बढऩे से उर्जा की खपत बढ़ गई है। इससे मानवीय स्वास्थ्य पर खतरा है। इससे शहरों में रिकॉर्ड बिजली मांग को देखा गया है। उनका मानना है कि हमारे घरों को अगर तापमान सहने लायक तैयार किया जाए। तो घरों के अंदर बाहर 25 डिग्री तक तापमान कम महसूस हो ऐसा बनाया जा सकता है। ऐसे तय होती है हीट वेव मौसम विभाग के अनुसार मैदानी इलाके में जब तापमान 40 डिग्री सेल्सियस, कोस्टल एरिया में 37 डिग्री सेल्सियस और पहाड़ी इलाके में 30 डिग्री सेल्सियस क्रास कर जाता है। तब इसे हीट वेव करार दिया जाता है। इस दौरान जब दिन के मौजूदा औसत तापमान में 4.5 से 6.4 डिग्री सेल्सियस तक तापमान की बढ़ोत्तरी देखी जाती है। तो इसे मौसम विभाग खतरनाक स्तर की हीट वेव घोषित करता है।

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Delhi pollution: AAP govt likely to impose ban on diesel cars today

The Delhi Government is likely to impose a ban on plying of diesel-run vehicles as the air quality remains under the "severe" category. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) recommended enforcement of restrictions mandated under stage four of the Graded Response Action Plan or Grap due to a spike in pollution. Under these GRAP measures, the state governments should stop the entry of diesel-run trucks, except those carrying essential commodities, and diesel cars except the BS-VI emission norms compliant vehicles, , according to an order issued by the CAQM. According to a report by the Hindustan Times, Livemint's sister publication, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai has called a high-level meeting on Friday afternoon at the Delhi Secretariat in the wake of the CAQM directions. However, an official from the Delhi Transport Department told the daily that the ban on plying of diesel vehicles will be tough. As for enforcing the ban on the plying of four-wheeler diesel LMVs in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, the official said they have access to a pan-India database through the "Vahan" portal. "The vehicles will be turned back and if any vehicle manages to sneak in and is found plying on the roads of Delhi, it will be immediately impounded," he added. The official said the department can only implement the ban manually. "There is no mechanism to implement it through technology. We will have to stop a vehicle, key in its details into the Vahan portal and only then will we get to know whether it is a BS-VI vehicle or any other vehicle," the official said. The officials said if the air quality levels witness an improvement, that is, they fall below 400, the ban will not be in place The department will issue public notices and release advertisements to make people aware about the restrictions in place. Another spokesperson from the transport department told the daily that if such vehicles are found plying, the owners may face a challan of ₹20,000. Yesterday, Delhi Transport Department officials said that a total of 120 teams will be in action at Delhi's entry points to ensure that trucks, apart from those carrying essential items, do not enter the national capital. The commission also ordered a ban on the Delhi-registered diesel-run medium and heavy goods vehicles in the capital. Those carrying essential commodities and providing essential services are exempted. The entry of trucks other than those run on electric and CNG into Delhi is banned too. According to an estimate by the transport department, there are nearly 300,000 diesel vehicles that have a BS-III or BS-IV engine in Delhi. Last year, a study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claimed that vehicles are the biggest contributor to local particulate matter in Delhi.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Vehicles curbs in Delhi as air quality plunges; govt mulls odd-even

Curbs on private and commercial vehicles entering the National Capital will come into effect soon, the Delhi government said. Giving details, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said the transport department is also drafting a public order about the ban. “The order will be issued by Friday evening ,” he said. Speaking to HT, a transport department official said a ban will be imposed on all BS-III and BS-IV four-wheeler diesel vehicles and all Delhi registered commercial diesel vehicles including BS-VI. Vehicles carrying essential goods using non-diesel trucks will be allowed to enter Delhi, he said. All two and three-wheelers are exempted from the curbs. “There are 120 enforcement teams deployed to check whether the vehicles are sticking to emission standards. They will also ensure that the curbs are enforced,” said the transport department official . Further, the department will send messages to all vehicles likely to face the curbs and a challan of ₹20,000 fine will be imposed for the offence. Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the government is exploring the possibility of once again implementing an odd-even traffic scheme and are consulting experts regarding the same. The curbs come in view of the air quality plunging into the severe category as the city records its worst air since December 26 last year. In an order issued on Thursday evening, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) recommended enforcement of restrictions mandated under stage four of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap). Under the Grap measures, when the air quality slips into the severe category (AQI between 401-500), the state governments should stop the entry of diesel-run trucks, except those carrying essential commodities, and diesel cars, except the BS-VI emission norms compliant vehicles. According to an estimate by the transport department, there are nearly 300,000 diesel vehicles likely to be affected after the curbs implementation. An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in November last year said that vehicles are the biggest contributor to local particulate matter in Delhi. Delhi has 8 million active vehicles of which around 30% are clean fuel vehicles comprised of CNG, petrol and electric.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Staff crunch ailing state pollution control boards in India, finds think tank analysis

In the Indo-Gangetic plains, the majority of state pollution control boards are working without sufficient experts. Around 40 percent of the technical posts in these SPCBs are vacant. A recent report by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) highlights several challenges related to human resources in nine SPCBs studied. India aims to reduce the hazardous air pollutant PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations by 20 percent by 2024. Experts bat for regional cooperation to fight pollution. On November 1 this year, the national capital of India reported the worst Air Quality Index (AQI) value of 464 in 24 hours. Along with Delhi, several other cities in north India face high levels of air pollution almost every year. When the onslaught of smog begins, these states rush to take short-term measures to get immediate relief, as Delhi is doing now – banning construction activities, asking people to work from home etc. But what they have been ignoring is the human-resource crisis in pollution control bodies that are supposed to plan and execute long-term solutions for controlling air pollution. State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) in India lack expertise and function with a human resource crunch, indicates a recent report published by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in October 2022. In this working paper, the New Delhi-based think tank highlighted the situation in SPCBs of nine states (Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal) and the State Pollution Control Committee of the union territory of Delhi. All these states and union territory fall under the Indo-Gangetic plains that covers the region starting from Punjab to West Bengal. This region frequently faces high levels of air and water pollution. According to documents from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, towns in north India, especially the Indo-Gangetic plains, have higher concentrations of ambient particulate matter than other parts of India. The CPR report reveals factors ailing pollution watchdogs in these states include staff shortage, especially the technical staff, the dominance of government officials, politicians and the like on these boards, less space for air quality management experts etc. SPCBs were earlier constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974. Later, their mandate expanded to air pollution, noise pollution, regulation of plastic, waste, and e-waste management, among others. SPCBs are autonomous bodies in states with the powers of giving and managing consent to industries to operate, set emissions and effluents standards, monitor compliance of standards and enforcing adherence to environmental norms. In its report, CPR analysed the constitution of the State Pollution Control Boards, the background of selecting chairpersons of these boards, strength, and qualifications of the team of these boards who collectively make decisions for the board to tackle pollution in their respective states. Technical posts remain vacant The CPR report says that seven out of eight SPCBs reported more than 40 percent of staff vacancies in the technical category. Bihar, Haryana, and Jharkhand reported the highest vacancies of technical officials, including environmental engineers and scientists. In Jharkhand, 84 percent of technical posts are vacant. The report claimed that most state pollution control boards lack representation of civil society, academia, and public health experts. As per the rule under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, these boards should have at least two members with special knowledge or practical experience in air quality management. However, this has not been the case in most of the SPCBs in these states, the report highlights. “The board members are often representatives of corporations, industry associations and municipal bodies which are potential polluters. While they are stakeholders, there is clear possibility of conflict of interest. On the other hand, these boards lack representation of those with technical expertise who can solve complex problems,” Shibani Ghosh, a Fellow at CPR and one of the authors, told Mongabay-India. The report claimed that in states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, pollution control boards do not have members with technical expertise. Regarding the chairman and member secretary, the report claimed that most of these posts were filled with persons who have served in government departments. Many of those in the leadership posts were given the job as additional charges. As per the CPR’s finding, the tenure of the chairpersons in these SPCBs varies. Many of these officials did not get sufficient time to conceptualise and deliver long-term plans. The data collected by the CPR team claimed that the regional offices of SPCBs also suffer from staff crunch. It said that some regional offices have only one or two executive engineers. In this human resource situation, the boards have tasks well beyond their capacity such as, they are bound to issue as many as 800 consents to operate (given to industry) annually. CPR used Right to Information (RTI) applications to collect this information about the strength of staff at these institutions. Shibani Ghosh from CPR told Mongabay-India, “We used several tools to gather information on the functioning of these SPCBs.” “We filed RTIs in these SPCBs to find out information on the sanctioned strength of the staff, the vacancy numbers, qualifications of board leadership and members, and other issues. We relied on the publicly available data on these bodies and conducted interviews with several people in senior leadership positions in the SPCBs. We also referred to earlier reports on the issue including by government agencies and the Parliamentary Standing Committee,” she said.

• Down To Earth

COP27 | Climate finance to rule the agenda at the UN summit in Egypt

Emerging and poor economies are also expected to highlight the loss and damage due to climate change, and demand financial resources to mitigate disasters Memories of extreme weather events that impacted the lives of millions in south Asia this year are still fresh, even as climate negotiators and world leaders are set to gather at Sharm El-Sheikh, a salubrious resort town in Egypt on the Red Sea coast. They will be here to negotiate strategies to contain climate change at the 27th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP27), from November 6 to 18. In Pakistan, rapidly melting glaciers had led to widespread floods. Extreme heat in the north Indian plains had devastated acres of standing crops. And just last month, cyclone Sitrang killed at least 56 people and damaged over 20,000 homes in Bangladesh. These were among the highlights of the havoc wreaked by climate change this year. India witnessed natural disasters and extreme weather events on as many as 242 of 273 days till the end of September 2021, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said in a report on November 1, basing its claim on data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Home Ministry’s disaster management division. According to the report, these weather events claimed 2,755 lives, impacted 1.8 million hectares of cropland, demolished 416,667 houses, and led to the death of thousands of livestock. The situation was no different in other parts of the world. We had Hurricane Ian in Florida, drought and heat waves in Europe, flooding and drought in China, Hurricane Fiona in the Caribbean, and flooding in South Africa, among others, leading to a loss of lives and massive property damage. Between January and September this year, natural disasters across the world have caused economic losses of at least $227 billion, of which a mere $99 billion was covered by public and private insurers, according to a report by Aon, an insurance broker. Insured losses due to weather calamities will breach the $100 billion mark for the third consecutive year, the insurance giant said in October. Tardy progress on climate action Although the climate crisis seems to be accelerating, countries were found wanting in their efforts to arrest the rise in global temperatures, as a slew of reports released in the past week ahead of COP27 pointed out. There is “no credible pathway” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, an ambitious target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned in its Emissions Gap Report 2022 published on October 27. The 13th annual report of the UN environment agency showed that the updated national pledges since COP26, held in November 2021 in Glasgow, will make little difference to estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2030. “We are far from the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees,” the report said. “Policies currently in place point to a 2.8-degree rise in temperature by the end of the century. Implementation of the current pledges would breach the Paris Agreement goal of containing global warming below 2 degrees compared with preindustrial times. The world requires a systemic transformation to deliver the huge cuts in emissions planned by the end of this decade. Compared to projections based on policies currently in place, emissions will need to be reduced by an additional 45 percent, the UNEP report said. Only a handful of countries have firmed up their plans in the past one year, despite promising to do so at the COP26 summit in Glasgow. Bending the emissions curve Although nations worldwide are slowly lowering GHG emissions, the efforts are not enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, according to the 2022 NDC Synthesis Report published on October 26 by UN Climate Change. The UNCC is the agency that hosts the climate summit. Only 24 new or updated national climate plans had been submitted since COP26, it said. “We are nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reduction required to put us on track towards a 1.5 degree-Celsius world,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary, UNCC. “To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them over the next eight years,” he added. The lethargic progress has resulted in the atmospheric levels of all three major GHGs breaching new highs, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin released on October 26. The increase in carbon dioxide levels from 2020 to 2021 was larger than the average annual growth rate over the past decade, although economic activity slowed globally due to COVID-19, the WMO report said. The findings have “underlined, once again, the enormous challenge – and the vital necessity – of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures from rising even further in the future,” Petteri Taalas, Secretary General, WMO, said in a statement. “The continuing rise in concentration of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction,” he added. Endangering health and food security Extreme climatic events are causing disasters in every continent, adding pressure on health services already stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change said on October 25. In 2021, India lost 167.2 billion potential labour hours due to heat exposure, with income losses equivalent to about 5.4 percent of GDP, the Lancet report said. Compared to 2000-04, the country had a 55 percent increase in heat-related deaths between 2017 and 2021, the report said. Global warming has serious implications for food security. This was seen in the reduced wheat harvest in India in 2022 as extreme heat shrivelled standing crops in March, just ahead of the spring harvest, leading to a reduced output for the first time in years. The growth season for maize has declined by 2 percent compared to the 1981-2010 baseline, while rice and wheat have decreased by 1 percent, the Lancet Countdown said. Amid all the grim reports in the recent past, the only good news was on the energy front. Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are expected to peak by 2025 in a “historic turning point” towards a cleaner and more secure future, according to the World Energy Outlook 2022, released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on October 27. The war in Ukraine since February has precipitated an energy crisis in Europe. This has caused oil and gas prices to spike globally, triggering persistently high inflation across the world, creating favourable conditions for an economic recession in western countries. Despite geopolitical headwinds, investment in renewable and low-carbon energy sources such as solar, wind, and nuclear power would likely rise to $2 trillion a year by 2030, an increase of more than 50 percent from what it is at present, the IEA said in its annual report. “Even with today’s policies, the energy world is shifting dramatically before our eyes,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “Government response around the world promises to make this a historic and definitive turning point towards a cleaner, more affordable, and more secure energy system,” he added. The money to fight climate change Given the dire backdrop and accelerating climate crisis, it is widely expected that issues around finance will dominate discussions at COP27. In 2009, rich nations had promised to cough up $100 billion a year between 2020 and 2025, to support climate action in developing countries. That hasn’t happened 13 years down the line. At COP26, it became clear that the developed world had failed to honour their commitment. The broken promise will continue to be a bone of contention at the Egypt summit, and we have to see whether any progress is made on this front. Emerging and poor economies are also expected to highlight the loss and damage due to climate change, and demand financial resources to mitigate the disasters. At the Glasgow summit last year, loss and damage were discussed for the first time in the main negotiation track due to vociferous demands made by countries facing the adverse effects of global warming. Expectations are high that substantial progress will be made in this contentious matter this year. “Egypt is hosting an African COP, so there is going to be lots of attention, and rightly so, on finance, and loss and damage,” Antony Froggatt, Deputy Director of the UK-based Chatham House’s Environment and Society Programme, told a news portal. “This is very clearly a time in which we can make progress in these areas.” Talks at COP27 are also likely to look into workable solutions to adapt to climate change, which would include strategies to manage climate risk and building climate resilience. The COP27 presidency, chaired by Egypt this year, expects countries to capture and assess their progress toward enhancing resilience and helping the most vulnerable communities. Any discussion on climate action will therefore hinge on the source of funding and the willingness of rich countries to contribute to resource mobilisation. Whether the talks will translate into specific commitments is uncertain. Many would say that the very credibility of the UN-hosted summit would depend on the pace of progress made on the thorny issue of climate finance.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

How ‘airshed management’ could tackle India’s air pollution crisis

The Indian government is moving to a new transboundary way of dealing with air pollution that recognises the problem does not respect political borders. In 2019, air pollution in India caused the premature deaths of more than a million people. That same year, the government established the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Three years later, the NCAP is widely described as ineffective, and India continues to rank among the top five most polluted countries in the world. Now, scientists are looking to a different approach to tackling the country’s toxic air, one based on the recognition that pollution transcends national and state borders. The NCAP was formulated to tackle air pollution in cities, specifically to reduce particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution by 20 per cent-30 per cent from 2017 levels by 2024. But the nature of air pollution means there are limitations to a policy that focuses on urban areas. “Air pollution is not restricted to geopolitical boundaries,” points out SN Tripathi, professor of civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and a member of the NCAP steering committee. South Asia’s geography and weather patterns mean that pollutants can travel long distances: a 2020 study of 22 regions showed that 46 per cent of air pollution (adjusted for population distribution) originates from another Indian state. “Because of the transboundary dispersion of air pollution, smaller towns that don’t have as many polluting industries experience high levels of pollution that come from larger cities,” says Kalyani Tembhe, programme officer at the Centre for Science and Environment, a think-tank in New Delhi. “Air pollution depends on meteorology, topography and land-use patterns,” Tripathi agrees. Because of this, Indian states are looking at new ways to tackle the crisis, with many planning to adopt airshed management. The World Bank defines an airshed as a common geographic area where pollutants get trapped, creating similar air quality for everyone. “We can reorganise… natural processes that govern the air, and identify airsheds,” Tripathi says. The concept is demonstrated by a 2019 study that found approximately half of the population-weighted PM2.5 in Delhi comes from outside the territory, of which 50 per cent is from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In Punjab, about 60 per cent of PM2.5 does not originate within the state, with about half coming from outside India and half from other Indian states. In Uttar Pradesh, only half of PM2.5 originates within the state. Sagnik Dey, a professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at IIT Delhi, has identified the major regional airsheds that impact India, based on satellite data for PM2.5. “The whole idea is that, within an airshed, the overall patterns of air quality from season to season are similar over the long term. There are nine to 11 airsheds in India. Some, like the Indo-Gangetic Plain airshed, within which lie two or more regional airsheds, are gigantic,” he says. The Indo-Gangetic Plain covers the states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal, and extends to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. How would airshed management work in India? The idea of airsheds is not new. The Canadian province of British Columbia and California in the US have both used an airshed approach to tackle air pollution. The Air Quality Act of 1967 divided California into 35 districts with similar geographic, topographic and meteorological conditions, where pollution is regulated by the California Air Resources Board. By 2019, this approach had achieved a 98 per cent reduction in emissions from “heavy-duty engines” compared with 2010 levels. In South Asia, the areas with critically high PM2.5 concentrations that would benefit from an airshed approach include the western and central Indo-Gangetic Plain; the Brahmaputra basin (India and Bangladesh); middle India (east Gujarat/west Maharashtra and Odisha/Chhattisgarh); the northern and central subcontinent (Pakistani and Indian Punjab and part of Afghanistan); and the southern subcontinent (south Pakistan and west Afghanistan). PM2.5 concentrations in villages and small towns in the Indo-Gangetic Plain are often similar to or higher than the nearest large city, indicating that air-quality management cannot be restricted to cities. “These towns don’t have any control over the pollution in their jurisdiction. That is why we need an airshed approach as air-quality management. We need a legal policy to ensure that cities take responsibility,” Tembhe says. “The idea is that all cities that lie within an airshed need to coordinate with each other for an effective solution,” Dey adds. “For example, 80 per cent of the airsheds of Lucknow and Kanpur [in Uttar Pradesh] overlap. Similarly, Dhanbad [in Jharkhand] and Asansol [in West Bengal] have a very big overlap in their airshed. So they will benefit by sharing their resources and data.” Now, the World Bank is developing the country’s first large Airshed Action Plan for the Indo-Gangetic Plain, across seven union territories and states. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is one of the most polluted areas in the country, contributing to 46 per cent of premature deaths. “The World Bank is supporting a team of Indian experts who have applied several internationally adopted models, including GAINS in Europe, North America and China,” says Karin Shepardson, lead environmental specialist at the World Bank. “Now we are helping Indian partners to tailor it to local conditions in the states in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, particularly the development of air action plans in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar using an airshed management approach.” GAINS stands for Greenhouse gas and Air pollution Interactions and Synergies, and refers to a model used to assess strategies that combat air pollution and climate change at the same time. How the technical model is ultimately translated into airsheds for management purposes is something the government has to decide, says Shepardson. The government is yet to define airsheds for India; the process is still being deliberated. Uttar Pradesh takes first step on airshed management However, some states feel urgent action is required before then. Uttar Pradesh is the first to adopt an airshed action plan. Speaking at the India Clean Air Summit in Bangalore in August, Ashish Tiwari, the secretary of the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Uttar Pradesh, announced that, with the World Bank’s help, the state has identified clean cooking as the most cost-effective intervention, based on the GAINS model. The state plans to distribute 100,000 free stoves and electric tandoors to restaurants and eateries. “Introduction of clean fuel will definitely have a huge impact,” Tembhe says, but she adds a word of caution. “While it’s a good solution, it’s not a permanent solution,” as sources of pollution need to be identified at the airshed level. “It makes more sense to develop an airshed management plan for the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain region, as pollutants don’t stop at state lines,” says Alan Lloyd, a senior research fellow at the Energy Institute of the University of Texas at Austin. He recommends the formation of an air resources board for the Indo-Gangetic Plain, similar to the one in California, that combines richer and lower-income areas within the same geographic area. “However, the perfect should not get in the way of the good. It is critical to get good data to put into the model. So, if Uttar Pradesh is ahead in data collection, then a lot can be learned while the other states acquire more and better data,” he adds. “In a big airshed like the Indo-Gangetic Plain, we need to understand the emission load of each state, so they can coordinate among each other in terms of governance and infrastructure to ensure that these major polluting sources can be reduced,” explains Prathima Singh, an air-pollution scientist at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), a think-tank in Bangalore. A 2019 study found that secondary PM2.5 (which is formed though the interaction of particles that were emitted directly) is the major source of pollution in most of the Indo-Gangetic Plain states, followed by domestic cooking. In Delhi, 20 per cent of PM2.5 comes from mobile sources, such as cars, buses, aeroplanes and construction equipment. There are also seasonal variations, Singh adds. In winter, stubble burning affects the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain. In summer, dust pollution from the alluvial soil in the river belt is a big contributor to air pollution. A snapshot taken by a NASA satellite in November 2017 of the smog created by stubble burning showed that both India and Pakistan were affected equally. The smog caused a health emergency, with schools, industries and airports shutting down in both countries. Airshed management needs international cooperation Despite a number of efforts to revive the Malé Declaration, an agreement to address transboundary pollution signed by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as far back as 1998, “as far as I know, nothing has come of it”, Tembhe says. This demonstrates why “international cooperation is important in the Indo-Gangetic Plain”, Tripathi says. “Punjab, especially Amritsar and Jalandhar, are heavily influenced by pollution coming from Pakistan. A large part of the pollution from the Indo-Gangetic Plain goes to Bangladesh and, at certain times of the year, pollution comes from Bangladesh to West Bengal and Jharkhand.” Ultimately, for airshed management in India to work, enforcement has to be taken seriously. This was a key element of its success in California, says Lloyd. “Previous plans in India failed because of a lack of serious enforcement. Fines must be commensurate with the violation, and public health must be addressed asap.”

• Climate Change and Green Economy

Expect action on finance, tech transfer: Bhupender Yadav on COP27

India hopes the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt is a meeting of “action”, union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said on Thursday. “We expect action on climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building,” Yadav said while adding that there have been enough promises by countries but not enough action. The unofficial theme of COP27 is also “implementation”. The Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit will take place on November 7-8 when heads of state and governments are expected to speak on implementation of pledges they made in the past and in the Glasgow COP26 last year. Following the summit’s inauguration, roundtables will be held to focus on six key topics: Just Transitions, Food Security, Innovative Finance for Climate and Development, Investing in the Future of Energy, Water Security, and Climate Change and the Sustainability of Vulnerable Communities according to COP27 Presidency. adav said India’s overall approach at COP27 will be to emphasize on the lead it has taken in strong, ambitious and decisive climate actions, its calls for climate justice, and its focus on sustainable lifestyles through the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) movement launched by PM Narendra Modi and UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres on October 20. The country will also look for collaborations in technology development in renewable energy and hard to abate sectors and emphasize that climate action can be further accelerated through enhanced climate finance, technology and capacity building support, he added. The critical issues for India are climate finance; mitigation work programme; global goal on adaptation and loss and damage, the minister said. “We are very clear that we want a multilaterally agreed definition of climate finance. India doesn’t recognise loans to be climate finance because it pushes vulnerable countries further into indebtedness so the only focus is on concessional and climate specific grants. On climate finance, India expects progress towards the target of mobilisation of $ 100bn/year by developed nations . There should be a decision on a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance for the post 2025 period. It needs to specify (i) quantity of long-term finance (in trillions), (ii) quality, (iii) scope, and also for ease of access to finance and with methods of tracking flows of such finance in a transparent manner,” Yadav said in a presentation. “When the definition of climate finance has not been arrived at, how is anyone claiming that climate finance is flowing to developing nations? ,” asked Leena Nandan, secretary, MoEFCC during the briefing. India’s updated Nationally Determined contribution (NDC) is a significant contribution towards global climate action, Yadav said. This was announced in August and has two broad quantifiable goals– to reduce emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030, from the 2005 level and to achieve about 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. India will strongly oppose all attempts to rewrite and redefine the provisions of the Paris Agreement, particularly uniform mitigation goals for all countries irrespective of development status, and call for sectoral or gas-specific mitigation goals, he added in the presentation. Action on mitigation, must take into account historical responsibilities and different national circumstances of the Parties, as well as the needs for sustainable development in developing countries,” he said. On adaptation, the global goal on adaptation should reflect realities on the ground and country driven nature of adaptation actions and India’s ask will be to avoid making this a top-down reporting exercise that further burdens developing countries with limited public resources, the presentation said. India supports early operationalization of the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage for providing technical assistance to developing countries for averting, minimising loss and damage due to impacts of climate change. In a factsheet released by Centre for Science and Environment on Thursday, climate policy researchers said climate finance is expected to be a major issue at COP 27. At COP 26 in Glasgow, developed countries noted with “deep regret” that the $100 billion target of climate finance, first determined in 2009, has not been delivered and is expected to be delivered only by 2023. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) latest estimate suggests that US $83.3 billion in climate finance was mobilized in 2020, but this has been contested by independent estimates. Loss and Damage will be big at COP27 because impacts of the climate crisis are severe and frequent now. It is reparations for damages and will establish the polluters pays principle, which will be deterrence over large polluters,” said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE during a briefing on Thursday.