Cse In News

Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

India’s plan to remove old, polluting vehicles faces challenges

In a survey, most vehicle owners say the decision to remove them should be based on miles covered and not vehicle age. India’s plan to remove millions of older polluting cars from its roads in an effort to clear some of the world’s most toxic air looks set to face several challenges with a new survey showing the majority of vehicle owners aren’t interested in trading in their automobile based on age. Some 57% of 10,543 vehicle owners surveyed by LocalCircles say whether a car should be removed from service or not should depend on miles on the odometer rather than age. The government last year mandated that personal vehicles more than 20 years old and commercial vehicles more than 15 years old will need to undergo fitness tests in order to remain on the road. In addition, just over half of consumers surveyed said they’re planning to reduce the number of cars they own because they believe India’s cash-for-clunkers policy will make it more expensive to keep an old vehicle. Authorities have made auto fitness tests more expensive since April, with owners of cars that are older than 15 years now having to spend eight times more to renew their registration. The public’s lack of interest in getting rid of polluting vehicles is a potential setback for India’s ambitions to turn net carbon zero by 2070. Recycling old cars is crucial for India to cut emissions considering the take up of electric vehicles is lagging due to sparse charging networks and the high price of battery-powered transport. The nation’s Centre for Science and Environment forecasts that by 2025, India will have as many as 20 million old vehicles nearing the end of their lives, causing huge environmental damage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has said it expects the program to attract fresh investment of more than 100 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) and curb the nation’s dependency on other countries for metals. Modi has said scrapping end-of-life vehicles in India is currently not productive because precious metals aren’t recycled and the energy recovery is close to nothing. Automakers however appear to be siding with the public. “Age is not a good criteria for scrapping a vehicle,” Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Chairman R.C. Bhargava said in an interview. “The logic has to be the car’s ability to ply roads safely so it doesn’t put other road users in danger. A vehicle gets scrapped when the user finds it isn’t economical to repair it to get a fitness certificate.” Personal vehicles should undergo fitness tests every three years at least, Bhargava said. In India, when a car goes on the road there’s typically no further inspection to check whether safety standards that were prescribed at the time of sale are being met. A large number of accidents happen because of defects in vehicles that aren’t periodically certified as fit, he said. India also needs more large scrapping centers with recycling currently dominated by informal small-scale units. Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Tsusho Corp. have jointly set up a facility with an investment of 440 million rupees to scrap and recycle over 24,000 end-of-life vehicles annually. Mahindra MSTC Recycling Pvt., which has a recycling facility in Pune, is building four more scrapping units in the western state of Maharashtra with a capacity of 40,000 vehicles annually.

Climate Change and Green Economy

Explainer: What are carbon markets and are they effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

Before India’s first carbon market comes up in Gujarat, here is the lowdown on how such a market works. India is the third-largest carbon emitter in the world and is just now warming up to the idea of putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions. India is behind 40 countries and more than 20 cities, states and provinces that have already implemented carbon pricing schemes. This covers about 13% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, as per the World Bank. China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, embarked on the largest carbon emission trading system in July 2021. Advertisement The Gujarat government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab on May 23 to set up India’s first carbon market. Carbon dioxide helps trap heat in the atmosphere and is also the primary greenhouse gas accounting for about 76% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Why are carbon markets needed? Since the beginning of the industrial era, human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide by about 50%, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. To tackle this, political authorities from nations across the world adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which committed to reducing greenhouse gases by implementing a strategy called carbon trading. The Protocol called for 38 industrialised economies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 to levels 5.2% lower than 1990. Advertisement In 2015, a structured framework for carbon markets was put in place through the latest international treaty on climate change under Article 6 of The Paris Agreement. If executed correctly, international emissions trading could nearly double emissions reductions between 2020 and 2035, according to the Environmental Defence Fund. What are carbon markets? Carbon markets are created to discourage polluters from emitting more carbon into the atmosphere. Like any other trading market, a carbon market is a trading system in which carbon credits are either purchased or sold by regulated entities, mainly companies. “Carbon markets are one of the instruments of pricing carbon,” Vaibhav Chaturvedi, an economist and Research Fellow at the Council on Energy Environment and Water, told FactChecker. “In any market, there is a commodity, a demand and supply of that commodity and then its price. Here, carbon is the commodity. However, it is not an inherent market like the food market. Carbon markets are born out of externalities (unintended consequences of any production or consumption). Hence it will need strict regulations.” This approach to reducing carbon emissions focuses on putting a price on carbon. Assigning monetary value to carbon could potentially create responsibility within polluting companies for emissions that were previously unaccounted for. Advertisement How do carbon markets work? There are two ways of implementing carbon pricing: the emissions trading system, also known as the “cap and trade” scheme and carbon tax. In the “cap and trade” system, a regulator, in most cases the government, fixes an upper limit on emissions allowed across a given polluting industry. The government then issues a limited number of permits to these industries to cap the amount of carbon they are allowed to emit in a period of time. Each entity is either allotted a specific allowance of carbon it can emit (grandfathering) or has to buy emission rights through an auction process. Representational image. Jayanta Shaw/ Reuters For instance, if a group of fossil-fuel fired power plants emit 1 lakh tonnes of carbon a year, the cap would mean that the government would allow the collective emissions across these plants to be 80,000 tonnes. If a plant manages to reduce its carbon emissions to levels lower than its emission rights, it is allowed to sell its carbon credits to another power plant that is finding it expensive to mitigate emissions in-house. Here, carbon credits are used as a currency or trading unit to trade carbon. Carbon tax, on the other hand, is imposed on polluting industries that use coal, oil and natural gases for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. The Council on Energy Environment and Water researcher explained that by placing higher taxes polluting industries are compelled to reduce the level of pollution and look to alternatives that impact the environment less. Since these taxes are imposed directly and do not require trading, they act as revenue for the government to fund various other sustainable development projects. Advertisement As of April 2021, the global rate of carbon ranges from less than $1 (Rs 77.70) to as high as $137 (Rs 10,647) per metric tonne of carbon dioxide, according to the World Bank’s Global Carbon Pricing Dashboard. How effective is carbon pricing? While carbon pricing has been hailed as an effective tool in reducing carbon emissions, environmentalists argue that the challenges lie in applying the strategy. According to findings of the Stockholm Environment Institute, around 80% of projects under the carbon trading scheme in both countries were of low environmental quality and that the system had actually increased emissions by 600 million metric tonnes. One common concern is the possibility of double-counting, which is a situation where two parties claim the same carbon removal or emission reduction. All countries have emission targets. For instance, if a developing country reduced its carbon emissions by 1 metric tonne through an energy-efficient scheme and sold its reduction to a developed country and also counted the reduction in its own target, it would lead to double counting. According to Carbon Market Watch, it is equivalent to “cheating” the atmosphere. Secondly, political and corporate corruption could lead to a carbon market collapse. In 2015, companies in Russia and Ukraine abused the system in this manner. It is imperative to look at carbon trading from the context of every economy, said Chaturvedi while adding that although carbon markets as an instrument to reduce emissions is useful, it is the relaxed regulations that could make it ineffective. “It is not the fault of the instrument but the relaxation in caps by regulators that lead to lower mitigation of emissions,” he said. Advertisement Where does India stand in carbon trading? While India does not have a formal mechanism or policy for carbon markets yet, it has four schemes that place a price on carbon in one way or another, according to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, a statutory body under the Ministry of Power. 1. Coal cess: A tax on coal was introduced by the Indian government in 2010. Under this scheme, tax was to be levied as excise duty on items such as coal, lignite and peat. The cess rate steadily increased from Rs 50 in 2010 to Rs 400 in 2016. Representational image. Photo credit: Mukesh Gupta/ Reuters While the scheme was aimed at utilising the collected revenue to finance clean-energy initiatives and research via the National Clean Energy Fund, it failed. Of the Rs 86,440 crore collected as cess, Rs 15,911 crore ended up being utilised for the desired purpose. In 2017, the coal cess was abolished and replaced by the GST Compensation Cess. Currently, the proceeds from this tax are used for compensating states for revenue losses. Advertisement 2. Perform, Achieve and Trade Scheme: Under this scheme which was launched in 2008, the government assigns specific energy reduction targets to major polluting industrial sectors. Those exceeding the targets are awarded Energy Saving Certificates while industries that do not meet these targets are required to purchase Energy Saving Certificates from industries that have exceeded their targets through a centralised online trading mechanism hosted by the Indian Energy Exchange. 3. Renewable Energy Certificates: Renewable Energy Certificate which was introduced in 2010 is a market-based instrument meant to promote renewable energy and facilitate compliance of renewable purchase obligations. Under this scheme, electricity distribution agencies are required to purchase or produce a minimum specified quantity of their requirements from renewable energy sources. Under this scheme, one Renewable Energy Certificate is created when 1 megawatt-hour is generated from renewable energy. In the last decade, India’s Renewable Energy Certificate market has recorded net sales of Rs 9,266 crore, according to a study conducted by the Council on Energy Environment and Water. The study highlighted that Renewable Energy Certificates saw a linear trend line in volume growth till 2020, but due to inadequate demand and supply, the scheme was later suspended. 3. Internal Carbon Pricing Scheme: Internal Carbon Pricing is a mechanism for private companies to voluntarily reduce emissions so they can channel investments toward clean and energy-efficient technologies and meet corporate sustainability goals. As of 2019, more than 1,600 companies worldwide were practising Internal Carbon Pricing strategies. In India, in 2019, 697 companies practised internal carbon pricing. Advertisement Avantika Goswami, Programme Manager, Climate Change, Centre for Science and Environment, wrote in an article on Down To Earth, that between 1990 and 2019, China, along with the original seven, was behind 67% of the world’s emissions. The remaining world, which is home to about 66% of the world population, emitted only 33%. China and the developed world will continue to grab the lion’s share of the carbon budget in 2020-’30 and the burden of reducing emissions will be borne by developing countries.

Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

Microplastics in the Indian Ocean Easily Identified Using New Methods in Water Samples

A novel approach for extracting and identifying microplastic particles from water samples was used to study samples from the tropical Indian Ocean. Experts have cautioned that extreme weather events, such as severe rains and cyclones, may be moving a considerable amount of plastic garbage into the sea. Climate change is predicted to worsen extreme weather occurrences; thus, they ask for legislation to address the plastic problem. Near-surface water in the tropical Indian Ocean had an average concentration of 50 microplastic particles and fibers per cubic meter of water, which is very high for the open ocean, as per ScienceDaily. Paint particles (49%), probably from abrasion of ship painting, were the most frequent form of plastic, followed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a 25% share. PET is used to make polyester microfibers for synthetic clothes and beverage bottles, among other things. It might get into the environment via washing garments. Microplastic particles are also generated when PET bottles break due to mechanical stress or exposure to sunlight. Microplastic contamination in the environment has steadily grown in recent years. The findings suggested that numerous microplastic particles, such as polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene, were broken on their trip from land-based sources to the open ocean, according to Fadi El Gareb, the study's co-first author. As a result, organisms may consume them more readily. A major portion of the detected plastic debris may have reached the Indian Ocean via the Sunda Strait, a strait between Sumatra and Java, making it a microplastic pollution hotspot. A large amount of the world's plastic garbage is transferred to countries on the Indian Ocean's edge. Every year, over five million tons of plastic trash are dumped into the ocean from China and the Indonesian archipelago due to inadequate waste management. Also Read: Microplastics: The 'Missing Plastics' of the Ocean Uncovered by Scientists Weather in India transported more plastic According to research, almost 1 million tonnes of debris, including plastics, was deposited along Chennai's shoreline during the 2015 Chennai floods. Another research found that increasing river discharge increased the microplastic concentration on Chennai's beaches by three times. This is a pervasive tendency. Microplastics are being carried to the beaches of Goa and Kozhikode by increasing winds and surface currents during the southwest monsoon (Calicut). The investigators from the Chennai-based National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Bengaluru-based NIAS, and the United Kingdom-based Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science wrote that the strong seasonality influenced by the monsoon has significantly affected the volume of plastics in the surface water, as confirmed by studies carried out in the north Indian Ocean and other regions. India began producing plastic in the late 1950s. They reported that consumption grew 20-fold from 0.9 metric tonnes in 1990 to 18.45 metric tonnes in 2018. The majority of the information we have is based on assumptions or industry estimates. The problem with microplastics is that it is not now on the agenda, at least in poor nations like India, according to Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh, program manager of Municipal Solid Waste at the Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Science and Environment.

Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Govt's plan to remove old-polluting cars failing to woo vehicle owners: Survey

The Centre's plans to create stringent policies against old-polluting cars on India's roads to curb pollution, is facing some serious challenges. For instance, the Vehicle Scrappage Policy has received strong opposition from car owners. As per a new survey, the majority of vehicle owners aren’t interested in trading in their automobiles based on age. In a report by Bloomberg news agency, some 57% of 10,543 vehicle owners surveyed by LocalCircles say whether a car should be removed from service or not should depend on miles on the odometer rather than age. The government last year mandated that personal vehicles more than 20 years old and commercial vehicles more than 15 years old will need to undergo fitness tests in order to remain on the road. Over half of the vehicle owners said they are planning to reduce the number of cars they own because they believe India’s cash-for-clunkers policy will make it more expensive to keep an old vehicle. The authorities have made auto fitness tests more expensive since April, with owners of cars that are older than 15 years now having to spend eight times more to renew their registration. The agency said that citizens' lack of interest in getting rid of polluting vehicles is a potential setback for India’s ambitions to turn net carbon zero by 2070. Besides, automakers also appear to be siding with the public. “Age is not a good criteria for scrapping a vehicle," Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Chairman R.C. Bhargava said in an interview. “The logic has to be the car’s ability to ply roads safely so it doesn’t put other road users in danger. A vehicle gets scrapped when the user finds it isn’t economical to repair it to get a fitness certificate." Personal vehicles should undergo fitness tests every three years at least, Bhargava said. TOP CARS See All Baleno Facelift Baleno Facelift 1197 cc | Petrol | Manual 6.5 Lakhs* Onwards Sonet Sonet 1197 cc | Petrol | Manual 6.79 Lakhs* Onwards Dzire Dzire 1197 cc | Petrol | Manual 5.89 Lakhs* Onwards Recycling old cars is crucial for India to cut emissions considering the takeup of electric vehicles is lagging due to sparse charging networks and the high price of battery-powered transport. The nation’s Centre for Science and Environment forecasts that by 2025, India will have as many as 20 million old vehicles nearing the end of their lives, causing huge environmental damage. India needs more large scrapping centers with recycling currently dominated by informal small-scale units. Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Tsusho Corp. have jointly set up a facility with an investment of ₹440 million to scrap and recycle over 24,000 end-of-life vehicles annually. Mahindra MSTC Recycling Pvt., which has a recycling facility in Pune, is building four more scrapping units in the western state of Maharashtra with a capacity of 40,000 vehicles annually.

Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Centre's plan to recycle old cars failing to woo vehicle owners

<p>India’s plan to remove millions of older polluting cars from its roads in an effort to clear some of the world’s most toxic air looks set to face several challenges with a new survey showing the majority of vehicle owners aren’t interested in trading in their automobile based on age.</p><div class="lhs_p2"><div id="ATD_DCH_300x250_S1_P2" yeti-found="true" data-google-query-id="CLnu9YyQovgCFZSJcAodONgCbw" style="width: 300px; height: 250px; margin: auto;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_1013527/ATD_dch/ATD_300x250_S1_P2_0__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"><iframe id="google_ads_iframe_1013527/ATD_dch/ATD_300x250_S1_P2_0" name="google_ads_iframe_1013527/ATD_dch/ATD_300x250_S1_P2_0" title="3rd party ad content" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" style="border: 0px none; vertical-align: bottom;" role="region" aria-label="Advertisement" tabindex="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" srcdoc="" data-google-container-id="5" data-load-complete="true" width="300" height="250" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><p>Some 57 per cent of 10,543 vehicle owners surveyed by LocalCircles say whether a car should be removed from service or not should depend on miles on the odometer rather than age. The government last year mandated that personal vehicles more than 20 years old and commercial vehicles more than 15 years old will need to undergo fitness tests in order to remain on the road.</p><p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/auto-retail-sales-grow-37-in-april-on-low-covid-hit-base-effect-1106666.html">Auto retail sales grow 37% in April on low Covid-hit base effect</a></strong><div class="ad-320-1023 inart2_processed" id="in-article3-1"></div></p><div id="outstream_ad" style="background-color: transparent;" align="center"></div><p>In addition, just over half of consumers surveyed said they’re planning to reduce the number of cars they own because they believe India’s cash-for-clunkers policy will make it more expensive to keep an old vehicle. Authorities have made auto fitness tests more expensive since April, with owners of cars that are older than 15 years now having to spend eight times more to renew their registration.</p><p>The public’s lack of interest in getting rid of polluting vehicles is a potential setback for India’s ambitions to turn net carbon zero by 2070. Recycling old cars is crucial for India to cut emissions considering the takeup of electric vehicles is lagging due to sparse charging networks and the high price of battery-powered transport. The nation’s Centre for Science and Environment forecasts that by 2025, India will have as many as 20 million old vehicles nearing the end of their lives, causing huge environmental damage.</p><p>Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has said it expects the program to attract fresh investment of more than Rs 100 billion ($1.3 billion) and curb the nation’s dependency on other countries for metals. Modi has said scrapping end-of-life vehicles in India is currently not productive because precious metals aren’t recycled and the energy recovery is close to nothing.</p><p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/maruti-to-focus-on-high-end-cars-as-demand-for-hatchbacks-wanes-1105068.html">Maruti to focus on high-end cars as demand for hatchbacks wanes</a></strong></p><p>Automakers however appear to be siding with the public.</p><p>“Age is not a good criteria for scrapping a vehicle,” Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Chairman R C Bhargava said in an interview.</p><p>“The logic has to be the car’s ability to ply roads safely so it doesn’t put other road users in danger. A vehicle gets scrapped when the user finds it isn’t economical to repair it to get a fitness certificate," Bhargava said.</p><p>Personal vehicles should undergo fitness tests every three years at least, Bhargava said. In India, when a car goes on the road there’s typically no further inspection to check whether safety standards that were prescribed at the time of sale are being met. A large number of accidents happen because of defects in vehicles that aren’t periodically certified as fit, he said.</p><p>India also needs more large scrapping centres with recycling currently dominated by informal small-scale units. Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Tsusho Corp. have jointly set up a facility with an investment of Rs 440 million to scrap and recycle over 24,000 end-of-life vehicles annually. Mahindra MSTC Recycling Pvt., which has a recycling facility in Pune, is building four more scrapping units in the western state of Maharashtra with a capacity of 40,000 vehicles annually.</p>

Down To Earth

िम

कृ िष म

Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Govt's plan to remove old cars from roads failing to woo owners: Survey

Some 57 per cent of 10,543 vehicle owners surveyed by LocalCircles say whether a car should be removed from service or not should depend on miles on the odometer rather than age India’s plan to remove millions of older polluting cars from its roads in an effort to clear some of the world’s most toxic air looks set to face several challenges with a new survey showing the majority of vehicle owners aren’t interested in trading in their automobile based on age. Some 57 per cent of 10,543 vehicle owners surveyed by LocalCircles say whether a car should be removed from service or not should depend on miles on the odometer rather than age. The government last year mandated that personal vehicles more than 20 years old and commercial vehicles more than 15 years old will need to undergo fitness tests in order to remain on the road. In addition, just over half of consumers surveyed said they’re planning to reduce the number of cars they own because they believe India’s cash-for-clunkers policy will make it more expensive to keep an old vehicle. Authorities have made auto fitness tests more expensive since April, with owners of cars that are older than 15 years now having to spend eight times more to renew their registration. The public’s lack of interest in getting rid of polluting vehicles is a potential setback for India’s ambitions to turn net carbon zero by 2070. Recycling old cars is crucial for India to cut emissions considering the take up of electric vehicles is lagging due to sparse charging networks and the high price of battery-powered transport. The nation’s Centre for Science and Environment forecasts that by 2025, India will have as many as 20 million old vehicles nearing the end of their lives, causing huge environmental damage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has said it expects the program to attract fresh investment of more than 100 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) and curb the nation’s dependency on other countries for metals. Modi has said scrapping end-of-life vehicles in India is currently not productive because precious metals aren’t recycled and the energy recovery is close to nothing. Automakers however appear to be siding with the public. “Age is not a good criteria for scrapping a vehicle,” Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. Chairman R.C. Bhargava said in an interview. “The logic has to be the car’s ability to ply roads safely so it doesn’t put other road users in danger. A vehicle gets scrapped when the user finds it isn’t economical to repair it to get a fitness certificate.” Personal vehicles should undergo fitness tests every three years at least, Bhargava said. In India, when a car goes on the road there’s typically no further inspection to check whether safety standards that were prescribed at the time of sale are being met. A large number of accidents happen because of defects in vehicles that aren’t periodically certified as fit, he said. India also needs more large scrapping centers with recycling currently dominated by informal small-scale units. Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Tsusho Corp. have jointly set up a facility with an investment of 440 million rupees to scrap and recycle over 24,000 end-of-life vehicles annually. Mahindra MSTC Recycling Pvt., which has a recycling facility in Pune, is building four more scrapping units in the western state of Maharashtra with a capacity of 40,000 vehicles annually.

Industrial Pollution

Pollution body bans coal use in Delhi, except by thermal power plants

Approximately 1.7 million tonnes of coal is consumed annually for industrial applications in NCR The use of coal as fuel in industrial, domestic units will be banned in the National Capital Region (NCR) from January 2023 but the ban wouldn’t apply thermal power plants — incidentally the largest users of coal, according to a notification Wednesday by the Commission for Air Quality Management, that coordinates air pollution norms in Delhi and adjoining States. “Restrictions/ban on use of coal shall come in force from October 2022 (for regions where Piped Natural Gas) infrastructure and supply is already available and January 2023 (for other regions where the PNG supply is still not available). In full effect, use of coal as fuel shall be banned across NCR from 01.01.2023,” according to the notification. Coal dominates industrial fuels in the NCR and current estimates indicate that approximately 1.7 million tonnes of coal is consumed annually for industrial applications in NCR, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed in six major industrial districts of NCR alone. There isn’t a standard figure for how much coal is used by thermal power plants in the Delhi-NCR. An analysis by environmental non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment, estimated in 2020 that Delhi alone sourced 33.6% of its power needs from coal based thermal power plants with the rest from gas-fired plants. Coal is however the mainstay of power across India accounting for over 65% of the electricity supplied. Shortage of coal in recent months have prompted periodic crises when stocks run critically low and States complain of having no more than a few days worth of reserve. Concerned with levels of pollution from coal-fired plants, the Union Environment Ministry had ordered thermal plants in 2015 to retrofit and use technology that ensured minimal sulphur emissions, a key pollutant. Despite a deadline in 2017, almost no plants complied and these deadlines have been extended to December 2022. Power plants say the cost of retrofitting is prohibitive. Independent analysts say that expecting industrial units to give up coal while thermal plants don’t comply is hypocritical. “It is good that industrial units, tandoors are asked to give up coal. However, except a few units of power plants in Delhi NCR, none have retrofitted. So unless power plants also give up coal, it will have limited impact on pollution because sulphate emissions from these plants are major environmental pollutant,” said Sunil Dahiya, Analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Nivit Yadav, who leads the Industrial Pollution Unit at the CSE and has worked on pollution from non-thermal sources say that the Commission’s decisions were a promising start. “It remains to be seen how much other States in the NCR comply. Of course, power plants must eventually give up coal but what we are seeing today is a start and the government and the Central Pollution Control Board must strictly enforce these norms.”

Industrial Pollution

Pollution body bans coal use in Delhi, except by thermal power plants

Industrial Pollution

Air panel bans coal as a fuel in NCR from 2023 The phasing-out process will begin in October this year, the CAQM said on Wednesday, adding that the ban, however, does not cover thermal power plants.

The use of coal as fuel for industrial, domestic and other purposes will be banned across Delhi-NCR from January 1 next year, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) said on Wednesday — a move that came after the panel sought suggestions on a permanent solution to the bad air crisis in the region. The commission said the phasing-out process will begin from October this year. To be sure, this ban does not cover thermal power plants. “Emissions from heavily polluting fuels like coal for various industrial, domestic and miscellaneous purposes contribute significantly to the degradation of air quality in the NCR and adjoining areas and accordingly a consistent need has been felt to switch over to lesser polluting and cleaner fuel in the NCR,” a statement released by the commission said. In a statement issued on Wednesday, CAQM said the ban on the use of coal as fuel will come into effect from October 1 in regions where infrastructure and supply for piped natural gas (PNG) are already available. For regions where such PNG supply is still not available, the ban will come into effect from January 1, 2023. The CAQM held a meeting in this regard on June 3. Several suggestions earlier received by CAQM were related to the banning of coal. The body constituted an expert group to examine and deliberate upon all such suggestions. In its report, the expert group strongly recommended phasing out heavily polluting fossil fuels such as coal, and mandating cleaner fuels to the extent possible. The pollution monitoring body said in its statement: “Shifting of industries to PNG/cleaner fuels has been a high priority area for the commission and to this effect, considering the need to optimally balance the imperatives of sustainability of operations as also the emissions from use of various types and categories of fuels that have a direct bearing on the air quality… statutory directions have already been issued for permissible fuels for industrial applications in the NCR.” While farm fires and emissions from firecrackers result in heavy concentrations of PM2.5 ultra-fine particles in the Capital’s air every year, particularly in the winter months, pollution caused by vehicles and coal also heavily contribute to the bad air crisis. The Union government issued an ordinance in 2020 to replace the Supreme Court-appointed environment pollution control authority with CAQM, with sweeping powers spanning five north Indian states to monitor and act against sources of air pollution. The ordinance was issued by the Centre as per its commitment to the apex court. A study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) titled ‘Assessment of Industrial Air Pollution in Delhi-NCR’ in 2020, which was also quoted by CAQM, showed that seven major industrial districts in the National Capital Region – Alwar, Bhiwadi, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat and Sonipat – had an estimated coal usage of up to 1.4 million tonne by industries. The majority of these were small and medium-scale industries. “We need to understand that if we want to clean the air in Delhi, we will have to work towards cleaning the air in NCR because we will not be able to get any results in isolation. Our study highlighted that pollution from these small and medium scale industries is a significant contributor to pollution in the region,” said Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director (industrial pollution), CSE, who also headed the 2020 study. Sunil Dahiya, an analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), said that while this move to phase out coal as a fuel in small and medium industries and domestic use was a welcome step, the commission should also focus on large thermal power plants. “This is definitely a welcome move but why is CAQM silent on the bigger coal consumers, which are power plants? They were directed to retrofit technology to control pollution and have missed multiple deadlines over the last few years. Now, the new deadline is 2022, December, and apart from two power plants, most are too far away from achieving even this deadline. The commission should also take cognisance on these big players,” said Dahiya.

Industrial Pollution

Air panel bans coal as a fuel in NCR from 2023 The phasing-out process will begin in October this year, the CAQM said on Wednesday, adding that the ban, however, does not cover thermal power plants.

Industrial Pollution

Air Quality Panel Bans Use Of Coal In Delhi-NCR From Year 2023

Every year during the cold months of December and January, Delhi and the national capital region is enveloped in a layer of smoke and fog. The smog that kills has been a part of newsroom discussions and policy meetings of the state and central governments. Now, in a step in the right direction, the Commission for Air Quality Management has issued directions to ban the use of coal in industrial, domestic and other miscellaneous applications in the entire Delhi-NCR region from January 1, 2023. However, the use of low-sulphur coal in thermal power plants has been exempted from the ban. This comes just a day after the World Economic Forum's Environment Performance Index ranked India the last in a list of 180 countries. With all this in mind, ET Now's Vikram Oza dives intothe big question tonight on everyone's minds is whether the air quality commission's order is too little, too late? On the show, we are joined by Nivit Kumar Yadav, the Program Director , of the Industrial Pollution Unit at the Centre for Science and Environment...Tune in! #Coal #IndiaTonight #CoalBan

Down To Earth

Sunanda K. Datta-Ray | Why (some) Indians are in a rush to stop being Indian?

ndia looks good. Especially from the outside and, better still, from a distance. Yet, the mad scramble to surrender Indian citizenship — even New Delhi’s ministry of external affairs confirms that more than six lakh Indians gave up their nationality between 2016 and 2021 — suggests a sinking ship. Not that there’s any sign of crisis at home. A political party with an assured vision of the future and a strong sense of power has controlled large swathes of territory since 2014. Indian cities bustle with glittering shops and smart restaurants as never before. Thanks to the reforms introduced by P.V. Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh in 1991, the middle class doubled in size from 300 million to 600 million. Dr Singh’s abolition of wealth tax undoubtedly helped to create 166 dollar billionaires, third only to the United States and China. The ripples of this wealth extend far beyond India’s shores, making Akshata Murthy, wife of Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) Rishi Sunak and daughter of N.R. Narayana Murthy, who co-founded the tech giant Infosys, richer than Queen Elizabeth Resplendent in picturesque ensembles, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi exudes confidence when he speaks on a few selected topics of his choice. Abroad, his government negotiates spiritedly with the United States, Japan and Australia over the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, “Quad” for short, and nuclear submarines for Australia. Despite a huge disparity between the Indian and Chinese economies and the setback in India’s own border conflicts, Mr Modi’s India is seen as a robust deterrent to Chinese expansionism. Why then the paradox of Indians seeking to flee what should be a land flowing with milk and honey? Why does the number of Indians applying for foreign citizenship and residency rights abroad go up every month? Why should a leading Indian politician, Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Opposition Congress Party, claim that Indians living along the border with China are consumed with envy for the “simply spectacular” development on the Chinese side? Perhaps there’s a certain mismatch between India’s rhetoric and reality. The language is uncompromisingly modern. “Digital India has become a way of life”, Mr Modi booms from a series of public platforms. But not for everyone. The updated passbooks of two leading banks, Punjab National in the public sector, and IndusInd, which the billionaire Hindujas founded in Mumbai, recall the old joke that if a monkey were let loose on a typewriter for a thousand years, it could not but produce a masterpiece. This mismatch is reflected in the unattractive quality of life for the vast majority of Indians, the result of persistently insufficient attention to factors like housing, hospitals, schools, public transport, hygiene, sanitation and the environment. A Singapore institute’s comparative study of public health in China and India compared China’s free-for-all state-run health system with India’s expensive private clinics, which only the rich can afford. There was no Indian equivalent of the Chinese system. India’s Centre for Science and Environment recently announced that a mind-boggling 71 per cent of Indians cannot afford healthy food. India dumps 72 per cent of its sewage without treatment, mostly into water bodies, and 30 per cent of the country is geographically degraded. More than 29 farmers and farm labourers commit suicide every day. Yet, the world courts India. That is not because India is the largest democracy in the world, as we are so fond of repeating, or because ancient Hindu seers and sadhus have supposedly enriched us with the wisdom of the ages, but because, as Pope Pius II wrote in the 15th century, when Venice was at the height of its imperial glory, every Venetian was a slave to “the sordid occupations of trade”. Six centuries later, that was the raison d’etre of a dynamic Singapore and the basis of Lee Kuan Yew’s courtship of India. Similarly, US President George W. Bush Jr did everything he could to secure a profitable partnership with a rising India. He explained his rationale with remarkable candour to the Asia Society in Washington on the eve of visiting New Delhi in 2006: “India is now one of the fastest-growing markets for American exports, and the growing economic ties between our two nations are making American companies more competitive in the global marketplace. And that’s helping companies create good jobs here in America.” Indian politicians are not usually very receptive to such essays in pragmatism. Think of the buying power of a billion Indians, President Bush urged. Think of the scope for selling Domino’s pizzas and Whirlpool washing machines in an upwardly mobile nation with the largest middle class in the world. By bestowing on India such a special position in the global nuclear pecking order, Mr Bush hoped to unleash India’s economic potential so that more Indians could afford more Domino’s pizzas and Whirlpool washing machines. Even President Barack Obama’s later visit was measured by the number of jobs it had created for Americans. Two recent seeming hiccups in the relationship bear noting. The first arises from India being the world’s third-largest consumer of oil, over 80 per cent of which is imported. Only around two per cent of India’s total oil imports last year came from Russia, but even this displeases President Joe Biden, who is bent on punishing Moscow for invading Ukraine. Second, the 2021 edition of the US state department’s annual report on International Religious Freedom prompted US secretary of state Antony Blinken to accuse “India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths” of “rising attacks on people and places of [Muslim] worship”. Both are serious charges but Prime Minister Modi need not be too worried. As already noted, the Americans are pragmatists, and will not break with India so long as a flourishing economy allows Indians to buy American. But danger might lurk ahead. In April, the International Monetary Fund lowered India’s growth projection to 8.2 per cent against the nine per cent estimated in January. Next year’s figure might be 6.9 per cent. The Reserve Bank of India forecasts an even less encouraging 5.7 per cent. Now, despite the differences over Russia and Muslim rights, the White House spokesperson dismisses any question of “adversarial” exchanges between Mr Biden and Mr Modi. “It’s a relationship that is vitally important to the United States and to the President.” He might not be quite so accommodating if a flagging economy restricts the scope of Indian purchases. After all, trade is a nation’s lifeblood.

Down To Earth

India’s SDG preparedness ranking continues to decline: Report

Country faces major challenges in achieving 11 of 17 Sustainable Development Goals India is not placed well to achieve the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and its preparedness has worsened over the years in comparison with other countries, a new report showed. India’s rank in the global Sustainable Development Report, 2022 has slipped for the third consecutive year. The country continues to face major challenges in achieving 11 of the 17 SDGs, which has pushed down its global ranking on SDG preparedness. The progress in around 10 of these goals is similar to those in 2021. These include SDG 2 on ending hunger, SDG 3 on good health and well being and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation. But ensuring decent work (SDG 8) has become more challenging, the report showed. Progress on sustainable development goals Source: Sustainable development report, 2022 by SDSN In the 2022 Global Index of SDGs, the country ranked 121 out of the 163 countries. It had ranked 117 in 2020 and 120 in 2021. With eight years left to meet the global goals on sustainable development, the country is off-track, the trends indicated. Since 2015, the report has been tracking and ranking the performance of 163 UN member states on SDGs. It is published by a group of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). SDGs are not mentioned in the latest central or federal budget documents of India, pointed out the report based on a survey conducted in February 2022. India is on track to achieving SDG 13 on climate action, the report mentioned. But another report presented a grim picture. Preparedness to deal with climate impacts is essential to deal with climate crisis, but the country has been facing major challenges in this area, flagged The State of India’s Environment in Figures, 2022 released June 2, 2022. The report was based of the trends revealed in NITI Aayog’s index on SDGs. The seventh edition of CSE and DTE publication was released online by Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and editor of Down to Earth. India’s performance on climate action — (SDG) 13 — has slipped from 2019-2020. In 2020, the country’s overall national score on SDG 13 was 54 (out of 100) — a significant dip from 60 in 2019. This decline in India’s overall performance is primarily due to eight states — Bihar, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand — whose scores have dipped under SDG 13 in the two years. Overall SDG rank in 2020 SDG 13 Score (out of 100) in 2020 SDG 13 Score (out of 100) in 2019 Change in SDG 13 score Bihar 16 16 43 -27 Telangana 6 43 66 -23 Rajasthan 13 49 60 -11 Karnataka 3 62 71 -9 Uttar Pradesh 13 39 48 -9 Andhra Pradesh 3 63 70 -7 Punjab 7 51 57 -6 Jharkhand 15 25 27 -2 Telangana, the state which is among the top overall performers (rank six) in the country, has seen a dip in its score for climate action by 23 points. It is second after Bihar, whose SDG 13 performance worsened the most (by 27 points). Besides this, the performance of 27 states / Union territories remained off-track in SDG 13, according to the CSE report. Climate action failure is the most severe global risk in the short term and will also have the most severe impact over the next decade, the global risks report of the World Economic Forum alerted in January 2022. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.

Environment Education

Three schools in Himachal Predesh awarded for green efforts

Three schools from Himachal Pradesh won an award for their “green” efforts on World Environment Day. The Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) Green Schools Programme (GSP) gave away the 2021-22 Chief Minister’s Rolling Trophies on Sunday to the Shivalik Valley Public School, Solan; Government Senior Secondary School, Nainidhar (Sirmaur); and Government High School, Dugha. To make the school campus environmentally beautiful, students and teachers worked together and got recognised as schools consistently practising environment-friendly measures over the last three years. These awards are granted every year by CSE in organization with Himachal Pradesh Council for Science Technology and Environment – the two have been working together for almost a decade for improving environmental education in the state. CSE’s Green Schools Programme is a resourceful initiative that motivates schools and their students and teachers to environmental practices within their campuses and encourages them to improve on them. Himachal Pradesh is participating in the programme since 2012 and has increased considerably from 44 schools in 2012 to 699 today. In 2019-20, Himachal Pradesh observed an impressive leap in the GSP audit achievement. In terms of registrations, 557 schools registered for the GSP Audit 2019 — a 65 per cent increase when compared to 2018 (367 schools) of the total 557 registrations, 156 schools finalized and deferred the Audit in 2019. Of these, 15 schools were rated ‘green’ in the Audit, up from four in 2018. This year also GSP workshops were organised and 110 teachers participated in it. The GSP-CM’s Rolling Trophy was instituted in 2017 to recognise schools that participated in the GSP Audit, with the aim of encouraging students to become environmental managers.

Down To Earth

Delhi lost 4,383 hectares of forest cover, reveals study

Delhi witnessed a deterioration in its performance on 13 indicators spread across eight Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) over 2019. There has also been a decrease in the forest cover of the city by 4,383 hectares and 61.73 per cent of the land is under degradation. These developments have been revealed in the 'State of Environment' report published by the Centre for Science and Environment and Down to Earth magazine. Delhi has been ranked second as per its performance and its overall score has also increased compared from the last one. The Capital has set up nine working groups, a steering committee for reviewing and monitoring of SDGs and has also aligned its budget with SDGs. Still, it remains off track in six of the 15 SDGs. Dropout rate at secondary education, crimes against women, sex ratio, and share of industries complying with waste water treatment norms are some of the indicators in which the city has performed negatively. The share of renewables in the total energy mix has also decreased while the amount of hazardous waste generated per 1,000 population has increased. Only 20.07 per cent of the city's solid municipal waste is being segregated at source making it one of the most poor performers in this category. Overall the SDG's in which deterioration has been marked are Zero Hunger, Gender equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Responsible consumption and production, Climate action and peace, Justice and stronger institutions. On the contrary the SDG's in which the performance has been on track are No poverty, Good health and well being, Quality education, Affordable and clean energy, Decent work and economic growth, Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Reduced inequalities, Sustainable cities and communities and Life on Land. The report also reveals that in 2022 India recorded its hottest March triggering early episodes of heatwaves. As per the report, "The country reported 280 heatwave days between March 11 and May 18, the highest in the past 10 years. This is almost double of what the country experienced in 2012, the second highest heatwave year in the past decade." The report also illustrates that 74 per cent of river monitoring stations in India have alarming levels of heavy toxic metals. 40 per cent of the stations have high levels of total coliform, and 15 per cent have biochemical oxygen demand beyond permissible limits, which indicate poor wastewater treatment from industry, agriculture and domestic households.