The clean air challenge

It’s that time of the year again, and people of Delhi and its neighbouring areas are waiting for the sky to fall—literally. The cold is setting in. With the slowing wind, the pollutants already in the air will settle down. We will not be able to breathe. We can only hope and pray that the wind and rain Gods bring us relief. This is because we have not done anything of consequence to combat pollution over the years.

The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was supposed to be an emergency alert system, aimed to take urgent steps when pollution peaked. It has become the only time we act, which, obviously, is too little and too late. Now we are being told that the government will play God—clouds will be seeded so that we can have rain to wash away the pollutants. This is when it is well understood that pollutants get trapped in moisture, which could add to our misery.

So, let’s get down to business and understand how we can reclaim the gains of pollution control. First, a quick recount of what has been done. The story begins in the 1990s, when the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) published its report, Slow Murder, and put forward an agenda for action. The key source of pollution (this should not surprise us now) were vehicles, poor quality of fuel and lack of emission standards for vehicle manufacturers to comply with. By the late 1990s, the Supreme Court passed important directions, asking for improvement in fuel quality; mandating emission standards for vehicles (this was the beginning of Bharat Stage 1, 2, 3, 4 and now 6); and enhancing public transportation. In 1998, the court directed for 11,000 buses to come on the road. Some 26 years later, the city has not even touched half the number. But more on this later.

The introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) was done as a leapfrog option—instead of only cleaning up the quality of petrol and diesel, which would have taken another decade. CNG provided quick relief. It was a game changer for that time. Anyone who lived through Delhi in the early 2000s will tell you how contested the decision was. But it made a difference. Today, when we are looking at the next transition to, say, electric vehicles, this leapfrog to CNG holds many lessons.

First, the technology challenge. No country had introduced CNG in vehicles at the scale Delhi proposed in the 1990s; there was also affordability concern. This meant policy had to guide technology innovation—from designing safety standards to bus prototypes. Fiscal incentives were provided so that old buses and paratransit like three-wheelers could be scrapped and CNG vehicles be brought in. Second was the implementation challenge and the need to work at scale.

This was not about bringing in a few CNG vehicles or buses; the court mandate was a complete switchover within two to three years. This needed coordination and some tough decisions—and at speed.

Today, Delhi has an ambitious plan for e-buses but it is just not taking the shape or progressing at the speed required so that the growth of private vehicles can be stemmed. In 2023, the number of private vehicles registered in the city doubled over the previous year; this in spite of the fact that petrol and diesel prices are up and a substantial share of the household budget is spent on transportation. The explosion of personal cars not only adds to the congestion but also negates all the expenditure on increasing roads and building flyovers and highways, and improvements in technology and fuel. There are old vehicles that are still polluting; our scrappage programme has not been effective. And even if new vehicles are cleaner, add too many of them and the benefits are lost. It is simple maths!

The second key source in this battle for clean skies and clear lungs is the fuel that we burn – from household chulhas to factories to thermal power plants. In most cases, it is biomass or coal. The Supreme Court banned the use of pet coke—the dirtiest of such fuels; the Delhi government banned the use of coal, which was later extended to the entire national capital region. It was also agreed that thermal power plants would clean up or shut down. Action on this has been patchy to say the least. The lesson from the transition to CNG is that people need alternatives for a ban to be effective. When diesel buses were stopped, CNG supply had to be assured. It also had to be feasible in terms of cost. The Supreme Court agreed that this needed fiscal measures to keep clean fuel cheaper than dirty fuel. Now, even as coal is banned, the price of natural gas makes industry uncompetitive. It will not work.

I can go on. And I promise I will. The bottom line is to understand that clean air needs action all year round; and that it will work only if we act jointly and at scale.

(Writer is Director General of CSE and editor of Down To Earth, an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mindsets; https://www.downtoearth.org.in)