New Delhi: Cleaning up Delhi’s air requires “uncomfortable and inconvenient” decisions, and it cannot be achieved by being nice to everyone, particularly the affluent residents who significantly contribute to the problem, leading environmentalist Sunita Narain has said.
Narain said although central and state governments have taken several steps to control air pollution in the national capital, including banning coal and introducing BSVI fuel, erratic weather patterns due to climate change and the inadequate speed of addressing the crisis continue to exacerbate the problem. Narain, the Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, said the episodic burning of crop residue by farmers in winter is not the primary concern. Instead, the persistent and major sources of pollution within the city, including transport and industries, are more worrisome, she said.
“My only request for the new government is to take some uncomfortable, inconvenient decisions to move ahead on air pollution. We will never clean up the air of Delhi by being nice to everybody, particularly the rich of Delhi,” she said.
Narain, who was part of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, also urged the new government at the Centre to bring natural gas under the GST regime, arguing that the current triple taxation on gas makes it unaffordable compared to dirty coal. This change would make clean gas a more viable option, she said.
“My biggest request for the next government... The easiest thing we can do to reduce pollution in Delhi is to bring it (natural gas) under GST,” Narain said.
She stressed the need for reducing vehicular pollution by enhancing public transport.
Source apportionment studies conducted in the past show that transport accounts for 17.9 per cent to 39.2 per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution, while industries’ contribution ranges from 2.3 per cent to 28.9 per cent.
“Delhi has taken several steps to control air pollution. It is the only city in the country to ban coal use, which is a major achievement. Delhi shut down its last coal-based power plant and transitioned to gas for power generation. The government introduced BSVI fuel and imposed a congestion charge on trucks entering Delhi. The construction of a peripheral expressway now allows trucks to bypass the city,” Narain said.
Efforts have also been made to incentivise the use of natural gas. In Delhi, there is zero VAT on gas, and natural gas is now readily available in industrial areas across the city. These initiatives have collectively led to a year-over-year reduction in pollution levels, she said.
However, Narain said there are two major factors that continue to exacerbate the problem — worsening weather conditions, which are beyond human control, and the inadequate speed of tackling the crisis.
This winter, for instance, northwest India, including Delhi, did not experience rain. The lack of rainfall is due to changes in the Arctic jet stream affecting western disturbances, which are becoming more erratic and shifting northwards, she explained.