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Why Delhi is currently witnessing the worst air quality since 2018

Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi, the national capital faces another worrying situation as air pollution levels have also been on the rise. Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi, the national capital faces another worrying situation as air pollution levels have also been on the rise. Delhi is currently witnessing the worst air quality since 2018, according to an analysis of air quality data of the last one and half months. The data shows that 2020 was one of the cleanest years in recent times. The nation-wide lockdown imposed on March 25, 2020, saw pollution levels in Delhi reducing drastically. As economic activities resumed post lockdown, the air quality started worsening. Data available through different pollution measuring stations from the capital, established by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), provides a clear picture about the change in concentration of different pollutants. Particulate matters are the biggest contributors to Delhi pollution. The main reasons behind increase in concentration of PMs include vehicular emission, biomass burning for cooking, electricity generation, smoke released from industries, landfill fire, and episodic agricultural burning. AIR QUALITY COMPARISON OF 2020 AND 2021 If we compare the average of actual concentrations from all Delhi pollution measuring stations, the PM2.5 concentration in March 2020 was 60.2 µg/m3, while in March 2021, it jumped to 98.2 µg /m3. The average PM2.5 of March 2021 is 63 per cent higher compared to the corresponding period last year. If we take data of PM2.5 for April, pollution levels in the first week of the month was 120 per cent higher than the corresponding period in 2020. During this period, the average PM2.5 concentration was 91.2 µg /m3 in April 2021, compared to 41.6 µg /m3 in April 2020. If we take the average of PM2.5 of six weeks (March to April 9) of 2021, it shows a 78 per cent increase in comparison to last year. If we compare the concentration of larger particulate matter PM10, then a similar result can be found. The average concentration of PM10 in March 2020 was 130 µg /m3, while it was 257 µg /m3 in March 2021. WHAT DOES DIFFERENCE IN POLLUTION LEVEL MEAN? Anumita Roy Choudhary, Executive Director of Center for Science and Environment (CSE) and a well-known environmental scientist, explains the difference in pollution levels. "Pollution levels depend on too many factors, both natural and manmade. Last year during the last week of March we started a complete lockdown due to covid pandemic. As most of the vehicles were off road and industries were also shut down, we witnessed a remarkable improvement in air quality. That's why data for the first week of April has a wider gap in comparison to last year," Choudhary said. NATURAL CONDITIONS AFFECTING POLLUTION This year, even natural conditions remain unfavorable to control pollutants in Delhi-NCR. "This year the number of western disturbances were less and hence the conditions were mostly dry. Last year witnessed quite a few wet spells in the month of March. Apart from that the wind speed remained calm in the first half of March and when the wind speed is slow it is difficult to disburse the pollutants," said director of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Kuldeep Srivastav.

CSE to hold webinar on Joe Biden’s climate summit

Emissions, negotiations ambition, impacts, scientific evidence... get a grip on the latest issues about climate change before US President Joe Biden’s climate summit of world leaders this April. The US President has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual climate summit on April 22-23 to underline the urgency that climate change is real. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend it. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has invited journalists, journalism students and climate change researchers for a detailed and comprehensive briefing to understand the issues and concerns that Biden's summit may put on the table. This is a free webinar, but there are limited seats, hence early registration is advised. Those who register will receive a confirmation from the CSE.

FEATURE-India's 'Solar Man' lights path out of poverty with clean power

Chaudhuri first brought solar energy to tribal villages in 1980s * Pioneered floating solar panels and grid-linked solar plants * India has about 40GW of solar capacity, aiming for 100GW by 2022 Since he was a child, Santipada Gon Chaudhuri had sought ways to help India's rural poor, so when the electrical engineer was invited to visit a co-worker's home in the Himalayan village of Herma in the early 1980s, he saw his chance. "I was appalled to see how local communities were living in darkness after sunset," remembered Chaudhuri, 71, who then worked for the government in the northeastern state of Tripura. "Some used kerosene lamps, but even kerosene was not always easy to get. Since I had both the skill and position to try and provide power to them, it made me act," he said. The villages of Tripura are located on tough, hilly terrain, where Chaudhuri realised it would be hard to put up power lines. "But they had solar energy in abundance," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. In 1983, he used government funding to install solar panels for 70 homes, as well as running a community television and water pump - the first time anyone in the hamlet had seen electric light. That small project sparked a career dedicated to bringing energy to people in impoverished, remote communities, a mission that earned Chaudhuri the moniker of India's "Solar Man". Today, more than 100 homes and businesses in Herma are lit by an updated solar energy system, allowing villagers to be more productive while reducing their use of expensive, polluting fuels like kerosene. "Life in the village would come to a complete standstill after sunset. But with light in our homes now, our children are studying until night," said villager Sumoti Riyang, 33. "Shops and business establishments remain open in the evening. We can work more. All this is generating more income for us," she said. In his Kolkata office, adorned with awards he has won since his first project nearly 40 years ago, Chaudhuri said he gets "great satisfaction" from seeing how solar power has changed lives in Herma, connecting residents to the modern world. CAREER OF FIRSTS Herma was the first tribal village in the country to gain access to solar power, and by 1989 Chaudhuri had led the installation of solar technology in nearly 40 villages across India's northeastern states. Four years later, he developed India's first centralised solar power station with a distribution network on Sagar Island in the Sundarbans, home to one of the world's largest mangrove forests, supplying 100 households through power lines. The project was considered a breakthrough at a time when solar technology "was largely confined to laboratories and prototypes", said Samrat Sengupta of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a nonprofit think-tank. By 2000, more than 400,000 people in villages around the Sundarbans national park were using solar power, through a mix of mini-grids and domestic solar-power systems. At the time, the area had the highest per-capita consumption of solar power in the world, Chaudhuri noted. The project earned him an Ashden Award, known as the "Green Oscars", and the Euro Solar Award from Germany. In 2006, it also inspired India's then-President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to invite Chaudhuri to design a captive solar unit for the presidential palace. "Chaudhuri's work is a classic example of empowerment of indigenous communities through solar power," said Arun Tripathi, director general of the National Institute of Solar Energy, an autonomous body under the renewable energy ministry. In 2009, Chaudhuri installed the country's first grid-connected solar plant in West Bengal's Jamuria village, a 2-megawatt (MW) project serving 5,000 families. This was lauded as an "environmental breakthrough" because, until then, solar power had been limited to remote areas without access to electricity, said CSE's Sengupta. Jamuria was the first location to use solar to replace coal power in the grid, bringing clean energy into the mainstream, he said, noting it cut the amount of coal burned locally by 2,000 kg (4,400 pounds) per hour and decreased carbon emissions. FLOATING SOLAR Sengupta and others said Chaudhuri's work helped pave the way for India's National Solar Mission, launched in 2010. The initiative, on which Chaudhuri consulted, had an initial target of producing 20 gigawatts (GW) of solar power by 2022. Having already nearly doubled that ahead of time, India has set a new goal of 100GW. But as its solar power expansion has gained pace, a growing population and increasing urbanisation have made finding enough land for big projects more difficult. In response, Chaudhuri came up with India's first floating solar power station. In 2014, after joining the nonprofit NB Institute for Rural Technology, which he now heads, he led construction of an experimental 10-kilowatt government-funded floating solar panel on a lake in Kolkata's New Town. "Designing the floating structure of the panel and anchoring it in the water body were major challenges," he said. That project grew into a national programme that now generates more than 1,700MW of solar power from floating panels in various coastal states around the country. Despite its progress, India's solar push has some limitations including high capital costs, scarcity of land and the need for sunny weather, said Partha S. Bhattacharyya, former chairman of Coal India Limited, the world's largest coal producer which is also investing in solar energy projects. "Thermal (coal) power is reliable and consistent, due to greater grid stability," he added. Chaudhuri and his team are currently experimenting with solar-powered pumps that push water up to a higher storage reservoir that can then generate hydro-electricity using micro turbines, supplying villages when needed. "The very concept of solar power has changed from simply providing lights to controlling carbon emissions," Chaudhuri said. "It is time that we seriously think about how to leave behind a more livable world for future generations." (Reporting by Moushumi Basu, Editing by Jumana Farouky and Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Managing plastic waste

The incorrect disposal of plastic and plastic packaging, which does not decompose, is a significant problem. Globally, 26 percent of the total volume of plastics used goes into packaging and only 14 percent of it is recycled. India generated an estimated 3.36 million tonnes per annum of plastic waste during 2018-19, as per the annual report for 2018-19 on Plastic Waste Management Rules by the Central Pollution Control Board. On an average, around 5.6 million tonnes per annum (TPA) of plastic waste is generated in India, which is about 15,342 tonnes per day (TPD). Around 70 percent of total plastic consumption in India is discarded as waste. Atin Biswas, programme director, municipal solid waste, Centre for Science and Environment based in Delhi, said it is difficult to predict what the share of the plastics used is for food packaging. And even when there are claims of a material being biodegradable, the question is how many years does it takes to biodegrade, he said, adding that humans are exposed to huge health risk because of ingesting micro plastics that makes its way into food. “We cannot go on producing something which is not recyclable. The India govt (MOEFCC) has indicated that it is planning to shut down establishments that produce single-use or multi-layer plastics. But we need a roadmap. Until we put a ban, the industry will not find any alternative,” said Biswas, adding that the new draft Plastic Waste Management rules, 2021 which was released recently, gives more clarity in this direction.

Not waiting for winters, want plan to cut pollution whole year: Gopal Rai

Rai, while addressing the conference digitally with experts, said the focus is upon formulating measures to reduce the air pollution in Delhi in future. NEW DELHI: A two day-long round table conference on air pollution was kicked off by Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Monday. Rai, while addressing the conference digitally with experts, said the focus is upon formulating measures to reduce the air pollution in Delhi in future. This theme for the round table conference is “Measures to be taken to reduce air pollution in Delhi before winter 2021”. With an aim to prepare before the toxic winter arrives in the national capital that causes air pollution problems, the government wants a clear roadmap to deal with the situation. “Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government does not wish to wait till September when the air pollution increases in Delhi; with the help of the experts, we want to create a long-term action plan to combat air pollution throughout the year,” Rai said. The minister added that the AAP government has taken several steps to combat air pollution wherein various reports have found significant improvement in Delhi’s air quality, but the government does not want to be satisfied with this much and wants more improvement. On the first day, the round table conference focused on the topics of soil or Road dust resuspension and its control, dust pollution due to Construction and Demolition activities and its control, regular pollution control and industrial pollution control. The key speakers were Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, Centre for science and environment, Mukesh Sharma of IIT Kanpur, Gufran Beig of Indian Institute Of Tropical Meteorology among others.

Dust and industrial pollution in focus at 2-day conference

New Delhi: A two-day long conference to prepare a plan on how to reduce air pollution in Delhi began on Monday. Experts from various organisations gave suggestions on measures to take before the winter, like focusing on minimising dust and industrial pollution. Officials said the Delhi government will prepare a long-term action plan for reducing air pollution based on the suggestions. Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai in the conference said that they do not want to wait till September when the air pollution increases in Delhi, but want to create a long-term action plan along with the help of experts. “We need to initiate action throughout the year. No one knows on how long the pandemic will continue and therefore, it is not feasible for us to wait it out,” he said. Rai further said, “We will have to parallel run environmental programmes to ensure that the AQI does not deteriorate any further. We want suggestions and feedback to create a positive, effective and popular environment plan for the city. We will continue this discussion on Tuesday to create a sustainable and effective action plan.” Thanking the participants, the minister requested them to submit their presentations so that they can study the matters thoroughly. The environment minister said Delhi government, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has taken several steps like electric vehicles policy and tree transplantation policy, and many reports have found significant improvement in Delhi’s air quality. “However, we want more improvement,” he said Anumita Roychowdhury from Centre for Science and Environment, who was one of the participants in the meet, said, “This is an important initiative by the ministry to engage with a diverse group of stakeholders to identify priority action for air pollution mitigation in different sectors. We hope this initiative will be carried forward to formulate the next steps to clean up the capital’s air.”

New norms for thermal plants may dent India’s emission targets: Experts

A new analysis by researchers shows that the new thermal power plant norms issued by the Union environment ministry last month, which allowed them flexibility in meeting certain criteria, could compromise India’s emission reduction goals that are part of efforts to tackle the climate crisis. The new rules, which came into effect on March 31, give an extension of 1 to 3 years to all thermal power plants to comply with emission norms that are mandated by the government. What makes it worse is that the penalty charged to companies for not complying with the extended deadline is even lower than the cost of complying with rules that are meant to reduce emissions, an analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment has found. This means that thermal power plants can continue to pollute by paying a lower price for not installing pollution control devices. CSE’s analysis released on Thursday shows that while installing the equipment for pollution control will cost between ₹40-100 lakh/MW, the penalty that a 500 MW thermal power plant will have to pay to keep running without installing the equipment is only ₹5-11 lakh/MW as per the new amendment. Similarly, the maximum penalty imposed on non-compliant thermal plants is 20 paise per unit of electricity.

2-day digital conference to find ways to cut pollution

New Delhi: Delhi government will organise a two-day digital roundtable conference starting Monday to discuss ways to reduce air pollution levels in the city. Environment minister Gopal Rai said the government had set a target of reducing air pollution by one-third in the next five years. Based on suggestions from experts and organisations at the conference, the government will formulate a long-term action plan. “Delhi government under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been working for six years to reduce air pollution. The work done in this period has helped but is not enough. To solve the crisis, the CM has guaranteed to bring down air pollution level by a third in the next five years,” Rai said. After “World Air Quality Report, 2020” ranked Delhi as the 10th most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the world, TOI, in March, had reported that the environment department would conduct a conference with experts from academic institutes, environment-related organisations and NGOs to discuss steps that could be taken to reduce air pollution. According to the report, Delhi, with an average annual PM2.5 concentration at 84.1 micrograms per cubic metre, topped the list of the most polluted capital cities in the world. The report added that the capital’s air quality improved by approximately 15% between 2019 and 2020. The experts participating in the conference include Mukesh Sharma from IIT Kanpur, Sagnik Dey of IIT Delhi, Sumit Sharma of Teri, Santosh Harish of Center for Policy Research, Anumita Roychowdhury from Centre for Science and Environment, Air Pollution Action Group Karthik Ganesan, representative from Council of Energy Environmental and Water, professor Gufran Baig from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and Siddharth Virmani of Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago.

New norms for thermal plants may dent India's emission targets: Experts

New norms for thermal plants may dent India's emission targets: Experts The new rules, which came into effect on March 31, give an extension of 1 to 3 years to all thermal power plants to comply with emission norms that are mandated by the government. A new analysis by researchers shows that the new thermal power plant norms issued by the Union environment ministry last month, which allowed them flexibility in meeting certain criteria, could compromise India’s emission reduction goals that are part of efforts to tackle the climate crisis. The new rules, which came into effect on March 31, give an extension of 1 to 3 years to all thermal power plants to comply with emission norms that are mandated by the government. What makes it worse is that the penalty charged to companies for not complying with the extended deadline is even lower than the cost of complying with rules that are meant to reduce emissions, an analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment has found. This means that thermal power plants can continue to pollute by paying a lower price for not installing pollution control devices. CSE’s analysis released on Thursday shows that while installing the equipment for pollution control will cost between ₹40-100 lakh/MW, the penalty that a 500 MW thermal power plant will have to pay to keep running without installing the equipment is only ₹5-11 lakh/MW as per the new amendment. Similarly, the maximum penalty imposed on non-compliant thermal plants is 20 paise per unit of electricity. But the cost of retrofit of pollution control equipment to meet the new norms for these plants is estimated to be between 30 and 70 paise per unit of power generated. “The amended notification favours operation of old inefficient coal power stations, which can continue to run on paying a penalty – this can compromise India’s climate change goals. What is worse is that the deterrence penalty charged to companies for not complying with the emission norms in the extended deadline is in fact a license to pollute,” the CSE analysis said. A senior environment ministry official, however, said the cost of penalties will have to be borne by power companies but the cost of installing emission control devices can be passed on to the consumers. “The power ministry has already made provisions where the cost of compliance to new emission norms can be passed on to the consumer in the form of tariff but the penalty for not complying cannot be passed on, so this will be loss to the power generator. There are a limited number of suppliers of pollution control devices... [and] Covid also has caused delays. So we have tried to harmonise the process through this notification,” the senior environment ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The environment ministry’s notification dated March 31 replaces the Environment (protection) Rules, 1986, with the Environment (protection) Amendment Rules, 2021. It states that thermal power plants located within 10km radius of the National Capital Region (NCR) or cities with million-plus populations have to meet the emission norms by December 31, 2022. Thermal power plants within 10km radius of critically polluted areas or non-attainment cities (cities that did not meet the annual national standard for particulate matter emissions from 2011 to 2015) will have to meet the standards by December 31, 2023, it states. Thermal power plants that are not in these two categories and are not scheduled for retirement will have to meet the norms by December 31, 2024. Read more: India debates the net zero emission target— what is at stake The environment ministry had first notified superior emission standards for thermal power plants in December 2015 for implementation by the end of 2017. Later in 2017, this deadline was delayed to 2022 due to resistance from the industry. Last year, the Union power ministry approached the environment ministry requesting that the timeline to meet air quality norms be deferred on account of pandemic-linked economic slowdown and the inability to source flue gas desulphurization (FGD) systems, which help control sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions. The environment ministry appears to have heeded to their demand. “The cost of non-compliance as per the new notification is miniscule compared to the cost of compliance, so why will companies comply?” asked Sunita Narain, director general, CSE. “Looking at the past track record of penalisation and stay (through courts) ensured by the non-complying power plants as well at the structure and formulation of current proposed penalty amount per unit of generation it is very evident that firstly it wouldn’t even be enforced and secondly rather than ensuring compliance, it will support non-compliance by polluting power plants in a power surplus market, where cost of non-compliance is negligible compared to amount they are paid as fixed costs,” said Sunil Dahiya, researcher at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Over 40% of India’s greenhouse gas emissions come from its energy sector because of heavy dependence on coal, according to India’s biennial report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

First Eco-bricks Bench Inaugurated in Dwarka’s Brahma Apartments

In today’s time and age, the society we currently live in needs a major change in the management of plastic waste. According to the Centre of Science and Environment, plastic waste is world’s most formidable environmental challenge and the COVID-19 pandemic has made matters even worse. However, citizens have already started to take the situation in their hands. On April 10, MLA Sushree Bhavna Gaur inaugurated a bench made from environment-friendly bricks in Dwarka’s Brahma apartments. The bricks were made from single-use plastic and multiplayer plastics like wrappers of chips, chocolates, biscuits etc which are small in quantity and are usually mixed with other garbage which cannot be fixed once mixed. All these plastics are put inside PET plastic bottles in which one plastic bottle weighs around 330 gm. In total, 8 kgs of single use plastic is prevented from polluting the environment. The initiative was only made successful by individual participation of all residents of Brahma apartments. Residents of other societies in Dwarka, including children, participated as well. The inauguration event was attended by the management of committee members and residents of Brahma apartments. The idea of the eco-bricks bench was proposed by Madhukar Varshney, founder of the Rise Foundation. “As a responsible citizen it is our duty to nurture and care for our habitat. Citizen and community participation is a must. We want people to be aware of the eco-bricks concept. We pitched this concept with Brahma apartments and conducted sessions with the residents. They actively contributed 100 eco-bricks,” Varshney said. Munish Kundra, secretary of Brahma Apartments said, “In continuation of our initiative of ‘Zero Waste Society’, we found making eco bricks is an easy way to handle plastic waste and avoid it being sent to the garbage landfill. This initiative is a good engagement with society residents. Our residents have contributed 100 eco bricks till now.” Vinod Kumar, president of Brahma Apartment said, “Proper management of our plastic waste is very important and eco bricks is a very easy way for this management. We have always encouraged such activities.”

Forest Fires Are Now Razing Uttarakhand, Did We Learn Anything From Similipal?

Uttarakhand is battling one of the worst forest fires the state has witnessed since its formation in 2000. According to forest officials, there are 40 active fire spots in the forests of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions, with Nainital, Almora, Tehri and Pauri districts being the worst-hit. Similar fires gripped Similipal National Park in Odisha last month and burned for over a fortnight. The massive fires in Odisha may have been doused by rain and hail, but the questions of environmental concern continue to burn. Mainstream television news channels, busy covering the campaigning for the assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, ignored the fire. Some concerns were raised on social media about the fate of the indigenous tribes in the state, whose livelihood depends on produce from the forest. Down To Earth magazine reported that forest officials were intimidating the locals, accusing them of purposely setting the forest on fire. Several environmentalists and forest guards accused them of burning leaves that sparked the blaze, an allegation refuted by the tribal population. The Odisha government claimed there was no loss of life due to the fire, without clarifying whether it referred to the loss of human or animal life. But apart from the suspicion that many animals might have perished in the inferno, there were concerns that those that fled the forest to escape the flames could fall prey to hunters and poachers outside their protected habitat. India has already witnessed four major forest fires in 2021, but no one seems to be concerned. In January, forest fires in Himachal Pradesh’s scenic Kullu and Shimla districts burnt for days before being brought under control. In the east, forests along the Nagaland-Manipur border also raged for two weeks before NDRF and Army teams were sent to douse them. The fact that very few of us knew or cared about these massive fires underlines the fact that Indians are not really worried about climate change. Wildfires are an essential part of ecological systems in certain forest habitations that catch fire in the dry season. But this natural phenomenon has multiplied manifold in recent years due to the unusually hot dry spells sparked by Climate Change. Apart from this, fires are often deliberately lit to clear land for humans or drive animals out of a particular place and often go out of control, endangering entire species of animals. Massive wildfires have become an annual ritual across the globe. But while the Beirut Blast and Covid-19 pandemic come out as clear instances of threats to human life, the world seems unaware of the impending devastation that climate change will bring. Environmentalists who try to flag this clear and present danger have been asked to work on their “anger management problem” by world leaders. In India, the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Bill tabled in Parliament left environmentalists howling in protests. The bill aims at easing rules for industries that breach environmental laws, thereby putting economic development ahead of long-term environmental damage. This sheer ignorance of those who make laws on one of the most important 21st-century issues is perhaps due to lack of awareness, as shown by the general apathy both among the government and the public towards the fire in Similipal. Indians wake up to the news of an orange sky due to wildfires in California, fret over bushfires in Australia and express outrage over the Amazon forest fires on social media. But when fires burning for nearly a fortnight wipe out one-third of India’s revered national reserve, nobody seems to care. Many of the environmental challenges that threaten our world, including global warming, can be slowed down if not reversed if we humans, said to be the most intelligent animal species, paid more attention to how our daily activities affect our natural surroundings. We can initiate conversations in order to raise awareness and work on minimising our carbon footprint as early measures to reduce the harm already done. We can use social media to support the work of activists who highlight the worsening condition of our environment, thus raising awareness. And finally, we can use collective pressure and outrage to call out those who are exploiting our planet for short term gains without any concern for the long term damage. And we need to do it now before it is too late.

Reprieve likely for six thermal plants

New Delhi: Six thermal power plants, which are located within a 300-km radius of Delhi and are contributing to the capital’s pollution, are likely to receive relaxations for the next three years, states Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). In an analysis carried out by it, the NGO found the latest categorisation of thermal power plants — based on the Union environment ministry’s recent amendment to the 2015 notification for coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs) — will mean that over 72% of the total capacity of India’s thermal power plants will receive an extension in the deadline to comply with stringent emission norms. Norms to limit pollutants from TPPs were announced in 2015 and were expected to be adopted by 2017. The deadline for compliance was later extended till 2022. So far, a mere one-third of the plants have taken steps in order to switch to cleaner technology, claims CSE. “Instead of working to ensure implementation, the ministry has chosen to extend the deadline further, allowing a majority of the plants to pollute for another three to four years. However, extension is not the only matter to be worried about. What makes this a fatally flawed notification is that the deterrence provided in it for non-compliance actually gives the polluters a licence to pollute,” said Sunita Narain, director general at CSE. Power plants are falling into three categories — Category A, including TPPs in a 10-km radius of NCR or cities having a million-plus population as per the 2011 census; Category B that includes TPPs in a 10-km radius of critically polluted areas and non-attainment cities; and the rest of the TPPs are in Category C. TPPs in Category A have to meet the deadline by 2022, while those in Category B need to meet it by by 2023, and in Category C by 2024. CSE states flouting the deadlines is also easier because the penalty is less. “While installing the equipment for pollution control will cost between Rs 40-100 lakh/MW, the penalty that thermal power plants will have to pay to keep running without installing this equipment is roughly Rs 5-11 lakh/MW,” said the CSE analysis. “It is clear that thermal power sector is a major contributor to India’s pollution challenge – from air to water – and this notification nullifies all the work that was being done to improve performance of the sector,” says Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director, Industrial Pollution Unit, CSE. For those polluting Delhi, the six TPPs likely to receive extensions largely fall in Punjab. Earlier, they had to comply with the 2019 deadline.

Env ministry’s new deadlines for thermal plants will give them license to pollute indefinitely: CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment CSE on Wednesday said the environment ministrys decision to extend deadlines for thermal power plants TPPs to comply with new emission norms will give them a license to pollute indefinitely. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday said the environment ministry's decision to ''extend'' deadlines for thermal power plants (TPPs) to comply with new emission norms “will give them a license to pollute indefinitely”. Norms to limit pollutants from TPPs were announced in 2015 and were expected to be adopted by 2017. But the industry managed to delay implementation to 2022, it said. “It is 2021 now: with just a few months to go before the deadline, a mere one-third of the plants have taken any serious steps to comply with the norms,” the green think tank said in a statement. On April 1, the ministry had issued a notification allowing TPPs within 10 km of the national capital region and in cities with more than 10 lakh population to comply with new emission norms by the end of 2022, according to an official notification. TPP units in ''non-attainment cities'' and those within 10 km of critically-polluted areas are required to meet the emission norms by December 31, 2023. Coal-fired power plants in the rest of the areas have to comply with the new standards by December 31, 2024, according to the notification. “The ministry has chosen to extend the deadline further, allowing a majority of the plants to pollute for another three to four years. What makes this a fatally flawed notification is that the deterrence provided in it for non-compliance actually gives the polluters a license to pollute,” said Sunita Narain, the director general of CSE. It said that six TPPs that were adding to Delhi's air pollution issues are likely to be given a much extended 2024/2025 deadline based on the new categorisation. A majority of these plants are in Punjab. Earlier, they had to comply with the 2019 deadline. “The new notification undermines all efforts to 'clean' up dirty coal power plants. It is clear that thermal power sector is a major contributor to India's pollution challenge – from air to water – and this notification nullifies all the work that was being done to improve performance of the sector,” said Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director, Industrial Pollution Unit, CSE. The environment ministry had revised emission norms for particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen for TPPs in December 2015, requiring them to install emission control systems by December 2017. The deadline was pushed to December 2022 for all the power stations in the country in view of implementation issues and challenges. However, power stations in the national capital region were required to comply with the revised norms by December 2019. The power ministry had last year requested the environment ministry to extend the deadline to meet emission norms for all thermal plants from 2022 to 2024, citing delay due to various reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic and import restrictions. Major pollutants from coal-fired power plants are oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM). According to the CSE, TPPs account for more than 60 per cent of total industrial emissions of particulate matter; 45 per cent of SO2; 30 per cent of NOx; and more than 80 per cent of mercury, in the country. These are also responsible for 70 per cent of the total freshwater withdrawal by all industries, according to an analysis by the think tank. A recent compliance report by the CSE showed that out of the 12 power plants located around Delhi, SO2 control technology was available only in two plants. PTI GVS RHL RHL

India-US partnership to ensure renewable energy target is achieved by 2030

In its Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC submitted in February, India said it has progressively continued decoupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions The US and India are likely to collaborate on a clean technology agenda for 2030 to ensure India meets its target of 450GW renewable energy capacity. Soon after US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the PM announced on Wednesday that the two countries can collaborate on a 2030 agenda to facilitate affordable access to green technologies and requisite finance. Kerry also tweeted: “Thank you, @narendramodi, for the productive discussion. India has an ambitious 2030 climate agenda, having set a target of 450GW of renewable energy. Looking for shared solutions to drive progress faster.” On Tuesday, Kerry said in his address to the South Asia Women in Energy (SAWIE) Leadership Summit that it is already cheaper to build solar in India than anywhere else in the world. “That kind of urgency is exactly what we need to confront global climate change. We are in the decisive decade for action,” he said, adding that he sees India becoming the cleantech hub of Asia. Under the Paris Agreement, India has three quantifiable nationally determined contributions (NDCs), which include lowering the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35% compared to 2005 levels by 2030; increase total cumulative electricity generation from fossil free energy sources to 40% by 2030; create additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons through additional forest and tree cover. In its Biennial Update Report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) submitted in February, India said it has progressively continued decoupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions. India’s emission intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) has reduced by 24% between 2005 and 2016. India is therefore on track to meet its voluntary declaration to reduce the emission intensity of GDP by 20-25% from 2005 levels by 2020. It is implementing one of the largest renewable energy expansion programmes globally with a target of achieving 175GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and later up to 450GW. Installed capacity of solar energy in India has increased by more than 14 times from 2.63GW in March 2014 to 36.91GW in November 2020. The new partnership with US on clean technology and finance is likely to accelerate the achievement of these targets so that India can enhance its ambition and NDCs in future, sources said. The details of the 2030 deal are yet to be spelt out. There has been a lot of speculation among officials and former diplomats that US may be nudging India to also announce a net zero emissions target by 2050. Senior environment ministry officials said one of the key objectives of Kerry’s visit is to get India to join the countries that have announced a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. In September 2020, China announced that it will peak its GHG emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The White House announced on January 27 that President Joe Biden will take steps to put the United States (US) on an “irreversible path” to a net zero economy by 2050. Consequently, Biden has also called for a summit of major emitting nations on April 22 in order to persuade them to commit to ambitious mitigation targets. Independent experts have cautioned that India should do a careful balancing act when it comes to a net zero emissions target, keeping in sight India’s domestic circumstances. “A net zero target has no flesh to it. It is not real. It is an aspirational target. Firstly, developed countries considering their historical emissions, should have taken on advanced deadlines. Secondly, even if 2050 is the deadline for them to achieve net zero emissions, there are no pathways to it. The US will definitely miss the 2030 targets under the Paris Agreement. Net zero emissions target is a way to kick the ball in the future. India should demand credible action now. China has announced a net zero target for 2060 and is continuing to build coal power plants,” said Sunita Narain, director general at Centre for Science and Environment. “There is a lot of pressure on India to phase out coal. India had also planned to retire old thermal power plants but with a recent notification from the environment ministry that has gone for a six. India has not just extended the time period for thermal power plants to comply with emission norms but it has made it easy for thermal power plants to keep polluting. The cost of non-compliance as per the new notification is minuscule compared to cost of compliance,” added Narain. The environment ministry had issued a notification on March 31 with staggered timelines for thermal power plants to comply with emission norms. It also specified the environmental compensation to be paid by plants that don’t comply.

Env ministry’s new deadlines for thermal plants will give them license to pollute indefinitely: CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday said the environment ministry''s decision to "extend" deadlines for thermal power plants (TPPs) to comply with new emission norms “will give them a license to pollute indefinitely”. Norms to limit pollutants from TPPs were announced in 2015 and were expected to be adopted by 2017. But the industry managed to delay implementation to 2022, it said. “It is 2021 now: with just a few months to go before the deadline, a mere one-third of the plants have taken any serious steps to comply with the norms,” the green think tank said in a statement. On April 1, the ministry had issued a notification allowing TPPs within 10 km of the national capital region and in cities with more than 10 lakh population to comply with new emission norms by the end of 2022, according to an official notification. TPP units in "non-attainment cities" and those within 10 km of critically-polluted areas are required to meet the emission norms by December 31, 2023. Coal-fired power plants in the rest of the areas have to comply with the new standards by December 31, 2024, according to the notification. “The ministry has chosen to extend the deadline further, allowing a majority of the plants to pollute for another three to four years. What makes this a fatally flawed notification is that the deterrence provided in it for non-compliance actually gives the polluters a license to pollute,” said Sunita Narain, the director general of CSE. It said that six TPPs that were adding to Delhi''s air pollution issues are likely to be given a much extended 2024/2025 deadline based on the new categorisation. A majority of these plants are in Punjab. Earlier, they had to comply with the 2019 deadline. “The new notification undermines all efforts to ''clean'' up dirty coal power plants. It is clear that thermal power sector is a major contributor to India''s pollution challenge – from air to water – and this notification nullifies all the work that was being done to improve performance of the sector,” said Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director, Industrial Pollution Unit, CSE. The environment ministry had revised emission norms for particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen for TPPs in December 2015, requiring them to install emission control systems by December 2017. The deadline was pushed to December 2022 for all the power stations in the country in view of implementation issues and challenges. However, power stations in the national capital region were required to comply with the revised norms by December 2019. The power ministry had last year requested the environment ministry to extend the deadline to meet emission norms for all thermal plants from 2022 to 2024, citing delay due to various reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic and import restrictions. Major pollutants from coal-fired power plants are oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM). According to the CSE, TPPs account for more than 60 per cent of total industrial emissions of particulate matter; 45 per cent of SO2; 30 per cent of NOx; and more than 80 per cent of mercury, in the country. These are also responsible for 70 per cent of the total freshwater withdrawal by all industries, according to an analysis by the think tank. A recent compliance report by the CSE showed that out of the 12 power plants located around Delhi, SO2 control technology was available only in two plants. PTI GVS RHL RHL

On Covid-19 responses and their disastrous consequences

On Covid-19 responses and their disastrous consequences Lockdowns have violated three core tenets of public health policy: prioritising the long term over the short, focussing on the totality of health outcomes and not just on one disease and weighing both the harms and the benefits of medical interventions in the balance of decision-making. Responding to the article by James Allan on 20 March requiring five tests before imposing lockdowns, one reader dismissed lockdown-critical articles in The Spectator Australia as ‘mindless right-wing claptrap unsupported by evidence and common sense’. I can only conclude that income-protected members of the Zoom class who self-identify as socially progressive need to invent a right-wing bogey as a salve to their conscience for the immense harm done by lockdowns to the poorest and most marginalised and vulnerable peoples of the world. Dr Sebastian Rushworth, a practising physician in a Stockholm hospital who is so good that Amazon cancelled his book on Covid, writes in his internationally well-regarded blog: ‘Lockdowns are inherently racist and elitist, with unclear benefits but proven harms’. He reports on a new study from the Karolinska Institute using UN data that as many people have died as a result of lockdowns as of Covid. The latter have died mostly in rich countries and been old, while most of the former were younger people in poor countries who succumbed to malnutrition, lack of vaccination with childhood immunisation programs shut, and treatable diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. The face of Covid in rich countries is an elderly man with multiple co-morbidities; among the biggest victims of prolonged lockdowns are children in poor countries. On 18 March, the Pew Research Center reported that India’s middle class (earning US $10-20 per day) shrank by 32 million last year compared to pre-pandemic predictions, while the poor (under $2 daily) jumped by 75 million, accounting for 60 per cent of the global retreat on both measures. An April 2020 study from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health warned that, with health services disrupted by the obsession with Covid, infant mortality could go up by 1.2 million by October in poorer countries, and maternal mortality by 56,700. People ‘fear hunger may kill us before coronavirus’. According to a World Food Programme study last April, the number of people suffering from acute hunger would jump from 135 million pre-pandemic to 265 million by the end of 2020. Childhood death rates rose in 2020 for the first time in decades. Therefore the number of total years of life lost to lockdown is significantly greater than that lost to Covid-19. A UNICEF report published in October warned ‘the harmful effects… will not be distributed equally. They are expected to be most damaging for children in the poorest countries, and in the poorest neighbourhoods, and for those in already disadvantaged or vulnerable situations’. The additional deaths of children under five would climb over two million in just 12 months and there would be an extra 200,000 stillbirths. An additional 150 million children could be pushed into ‘multidimensional poverty’ by year’s end, with diminished access to education, health care, housing, nutrition, sanitation and water. School closures affected 1.6 billion children and youth globally, with 463 million without access to remote learning platforms. A follow-up report on South Asia on 17 March noted that against 186,000 people who had died with Covid, the disruption in health services had caused 239,000 maternal and child deaths. In India, which comprises 70 per cent of South Asia’s population, with 149,000 deaths Covid-19 was the 13th deadliest killer last year, with TB, diarrhoea and diabetes accounting for 2 to 4 times as many deaths. The 216,000 suicides killed 50 per cent more Indians than Covid and we can be certain that lockdowns were both a direct and indirect cause of suicides. Lockdowns have forced 500 million children around the world out of school and more than half of them are in India. Pointing this out on the release of a report on 25 February, Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment, said more than half the additional 115 million people pushed back into extreme poverty live in South Asia. India, she said, was all set to usher in a 375-million strong ‘pandemic generation’ of children up to age 14 likely to suffer long-lasting impacts like increased child mortality, being underweight and stunted and educational and work-productivity reversals. The New York Times had a long report on 3 August detailing lockdowns’ collateral harms. Dr Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO’s global malaria program, warned that with public health attention monopolised by Covid, disruptions to global supply chains for medicines and medical equipment and interruptions to immunisation programs and screenings, two decades of progress on TB, HIV and malaria was at risk of reversals. TB is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing around 1.5 million each year. TB diagnoses in South Africa, Mozambique, Mexico and India (which accounts for 27 per cent of the world’s cases) fell by 50-75 per cent after the pandemic struck. Just three months of lockdowns would increase TB cases by another 6.3 million over ten months and deaths by 1.4 million. Similarly, access to preventative drugs to stop HIV-positive pregnant women from passing the infection to their babies in the womb, if delayed by six months, could increase HIV infection in children by around 150 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. On 1 February, BBC’s India business correspondent Nikhil Inamdar reported: ‘Covid-19 has ravaged the country, shrunk its GDP, sent unemployment soaring and added to the distress of a banking sector that was already in crisis’. Actually, no, Covid-19 doesn’t possess such omnipotent powers. Rather, lockdown measures to combat the disease proved deadlier than the disease itself. Meanwhile on 23 December, Forbes published a list of fifty doctors, scientists and healthcare entrepreneurs who’ve became pandemic billionaires. Covid business has boomed for cabinet cronies in the UK and for consulting firms in Australia. Amazon, Facebook and Google increased their share of US advertising dollars to more than half in 2020. The increased time and money spent on these platforms in turn fattens the consumer data collected by them and increases their market appeal for advertisers. This just might influence their decisions on censoring lockdown-critical commentary. Yet millions of Covidians are brainwashed enough to believe that opposition to all this is ‘right-wing claptrap’. Sigh.