DISCUSSION

As Green Delhi Turns Grey

Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Kasturi Das

he joint study by economists from

the University of Chicago, Harvard,
and Yale (Michael Greenstone
et al, Lower Pollution, Longer Lives:
Life Expectancy Gains if India Reduced
Particulate Matter Pollution, EPW, 21 February 2015) has reignited the debate on
the issue of unsustainable air pollution
in Indian cities, particularly Delhi.
The debate had in a way been triggered by a May 2014 World Health
Organization (WHO) report that ranked
Delhi as the worlds worst city in terms
of air quality. Perhaps it could not have
been better timed as its publication coincided with certain significant developments that reinforced the importance of
its core findings. On 11 February 2015,
the Delhi High Court, taking note of
alarming levels of air pollution in the
national capital, directed the Delhi governments geospatial authority to provide
a detailed pollution map of the city since
2010 (Business Standard 2015). The high
court was hearing a public interest
litigation (PIL) on the problem of poor
ambient air quality in Delhi, an issue
which it had taken up suo motu and for
which it had appointed an amicus curiae. On 16 February, Greenpeace revealed
that an air quality monitoring survey
carried out in five prominent schools in
Delhi found the particulate matter (PM)
2.5 levels to be four times the Indian
safety limit and 10 times the WHO limit
(Greenpeace India 2015). On 27 February 2015, the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB) came up with its finding
that Delhi had the most polluted air
among the 16 cities in the National
Capital Region (NCR), though all the
other 15 cities also exceeded the national
permissible standards for PM (Economic
Times 2015).
Notwithstanding these developments,
mitigating air pollution was conspicuous
by its near absence in the election manifestos of all the political parties that
Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

may 9, 2015

fought the Delhi election in the same

month, February. With air pollution in
Delhi never being an election issue, it is
hardly surprising that little has been
done by the state and central governments to combat the problem. On the
contrary, when the WHO report came
last year, government agencies, including the CPCB, went into denial mode
(Kalra 2014). They busily claimed Delhi
fared better than Beijing, at least in
summer and during the monsoon.
Whether this is a valid comparison or
not, Minister for Environment and Forests
Prakash Javadekar has acknowledged
that emergency measures have to be
taken to tackle the problem in Delhi
(Headlines Today 2015). Chief Minister
of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal reportedly
instructed his environment and forest
department officials at their first review
meeting to come up with offbeat ideas
to quickly get to work on the citys air
pollution (Roy 2015).
Recognising Multiple Benefits
Air quality is affected by multiple sources.
These include vehicular combustion,
burning of municipal solid waste, burning of biomass and crop residues, and
burning of coal in power plants or from
combustion in manufacturing industry.
These combustions in different forms
are not fully delinked from each other.
Hence, a way of addressing these challenges could be through mainstreaming
and internalising the multiple co-benefits
that could arise from a single policy
intervention to mitigate air pollution from
a particular source (Guttikunda et al
2014). The co-benefits imply that the
policy intervention would not only have
an impact on its primary or intended
objective, but also simultaneously have
other secondary or unintended positive
benefits. For instance, a programme of
solid waste management may involve
collection of wet waste to generate biogas.

vol l no 19

This biogas can also meet domestic

energy needs and reduce the load at the
local power plant, which reduces emissions and air pollutants. Similarly, programmes to improve fuel economy by
introducing fuel economy standards may
lead to a systematic reduction of all
pollutant emissions as a co-benefit,
which will have a reduced effect on climate change because there is less use
and combustion of fuels and a concomitant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Likewise, a programme incentivising a shift to cleaner fuels such as
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking or electricity for lighting will lower
the use of conventional fuels such as
coal, biomass, and kerosene, reducing
all pollutant emissions.1
This article recommends moving
away from the existing command-andcontrol mechanism to a market-based
mechanism based on pollution trading,
drawing on insights from the US Acid
Rain program. The pollution-trading
scheme allows the regulatorscentral
and state pollution control boardsto
set a cap on the aggregate level of pollution permitted in an industrial area, and
then allow industries to self-regulate to
ensure that they do not exceed this cap.
Industries that emit excess pollutants
can buy permits from industries that
control pollution in excess of their targets
(Duflo et al 2010). It needs to be mentioned that a pollution-trading system
in respiratory solid particulate matter
(RSPM) has been initiated in the industrial clusters of three states, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, but
the results are not yet available in the
public domain.
There is, however, a catch in linking
ambient air quality to a cap in that the
former refers to the aggregate level of
pollutants in an area, which is a function not only of industrial sources but
also of other local sources (such as
transport, burning of solid waste and
biomass, which could even play a more
significant role) and distant ones from
where pollutants could be transmitted
to the area for which the cap is set.
Segregating other significant sources from
77

DISCUSSION

industry while setting the cap could be a

challenge, and could invite distortions
and inaccuracies.
Further, as designing a pollutionbased trading system requires adequate
real-time monitoring of total emissions
in a manner acceptable to the regulators,
the participating industries, and the
public, the role of a CEMS becomes
crucial. This can ensure effective measurement, recording, and standardised
reporting of specified air emissions and
other parameters, especially for industrial sources. However, installing a CEMS
could be expensive, though it would be
more accurate and fair than spot checks
at long intervals. An important issue is
that implementing a CEMS across different sources requires a common guideline with specifications for calibration to
eliminate disparities and ensure uniformity in results. The Tamil Nadu Pollution
Control Board has begun developing
and standardising a basic platform so
that there are no disparities in the
results (CPCB 2013). Once established,
this could be used as a benchmark by
other states to participate in air-pollution
trading systems.
Judicial Activism
Greenstone et al underscore the adverse
effects of stringent legislation and
regulation based on exorbitant penalties
for the abatement of pollution. Indian
environmental regulation has traditionally been based on a commandand-control model, but enforcement
and compliance has been largely weak.
This has often led to intervention
by the judiciary through PILs. Noted
among them in the context of pollution
was M C Mehta vs Union of India where
the Supreme Court held that air pollution in Delhi caused by vehicular emissions violated the right to life under
Article 21 of the Constitution and directed
all commercial vehicles operating in
Delhi to switch to compressed natural
gas (CNG).2 The Supreme Court also
directed the state government under
Chief Minister Sheila Dixit to move
polluting industries out of Delhi. On
4 March, the Delhi High Court agreed
to hear a fresh PIL seeking directions to
the centre to take immediate steps to
78

control increasing air pollution in the

national capital (IBN Live 2015).
Chinese Example
Last, but in no way the least, the importance of wide public access to information and its dissemination can hardly be
overemphasised. Real-time monitoring
through technological enhancements is
undoubtedly necessary for getting the
right kind of information, but what is
more crucial is how promptly the information is disseminated and whether it is
capable of generating the desired impact.
Social media in China has brought about
a sea change in public access to realtime information on pollution. It all
began in 2011 when information on PM
2.5 began to travel online in no time
through Weibo, the Chinese equivalent
of Twitter (Guardian 2012). Soon, air
pollution became a public obsession
with a huge rise in sale of masks and
filters. Increasing public outcry forced
the government to implement the new
National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), including PM 2.5 and
ozone standards across 160 cities in
China. National air quality data also
began to be officially disclosed and
routinely recorded on Weibo and
through smartphone apps.
Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay (kaushik.
ranjan@teriuniversity.ac.in) is with TERI
University, New Delhi; Kasturi Das (kdas@imt.
edu) is with the Institute of Management
Technology, Ghaziabad.

Notes
1

It also needs to be recognised that these policies may not sometimes be able to achieve the
desired outcome if the rebound effect is high.
For instance, if improving fuel economy of vehicles leads to higher and more intensive usage
of vehicles, the basic objective of reducing
emissions or pollutants could get frustrated.
For more details on different PILs on pollution,
see http://cpcb.nic.in/upload/Newsletters/
Newsletters_17_2002.pdf

References
Business Standard (2015): Air Pollution in Delhi
Alarming, HC Calls for Pollution Map, 11 Feb,
http://www.business-standard.com/article/
pti-stories/air-pollution-in-delhi-alarming-hccalls-for-pollution-map-115021101336_1.html
CPCB (2013): Continuous Emissions Monitoring
Systems and Pilot Emissions Trading Scheme
(ETS) for Particulate Matter from Stationary
Sources (Stack) in India (Market Friendly
Emissions Trading Scheme), Central Pollution
Control Board, New Delhi, http://cpcb.nic.in/
upload/NewItems/NewItem_202_CEMS_
Specs_v21-11-13v_cpcb.pdf
Duflo, Esther, Michael Greenstone, Rohini Pande
and Nicholas Ryan (2010): Towards an Emissions Trading Scheme for Air Pollutants in
India: A Concept Note, Ministry of Environment and Forests Discussion Paper, New Delhi,
http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/towards-an-emissions-tradingscheme-for-air-pollutants.pdf.
Economic Times (2015): Delhi Most Polluted
among 16 NCR Cities: CPCB Study, 27 Feb,
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/
2015-02-27/news/59585195_1_carbon-monoxide-cpcb-delhi-transport-corporation
Greenpeace India (2015): Delhi Children Breathe
Toxic Air, Reveals Greenpeace Air-Monitoring
Survey in Schools, press release, 16 Feb,
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/Press/Delhi-children-breath-toxic-air-reveals-Greenpeace-air-monitoring-survey-in-schools/
Guardian (2012): How the Internet Is Powering
the Fight against Beijings Dirty Air, 10 April,
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/
2012/apr/10/internet-beijing-dirty-air-pollution
Guttikunda, S K, R Goel and P Pant (2014): Nature
of Air Pollution, Emission Sources, and Management in Indian Cities, Atmospheric Environment, Vol 95, pp 50110, http://pure-oai.
bham.ac.uk/ws/files/17851233/Pant_Nature_
air_pollution_Atmospheric_Environment_2014.
pdf
Headlines Today (2015): We Have to Take Emergency Measures to Check Air Pollution in Delhi: Prakash Javadekar, 18 Feb, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/delhi-air-most-pollutedgreenpeace-survey-prakash-javadekar-rahulkanwal/1/419520.html.
IBN Live (2015): High Court to Hear Plea on
Increasing Air Pollution in Delhi, 4 March,
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/high-court-tohear-plea-on-increasing-air-pollution-in-delhi/532055-3-244.html
Kalra, Aditya (2014): India Rejects WHO Report
Saying New Delhi Has Worst Air Pollution, 8
May, http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/
us-india-pollution-idINKBN0DO12I20140508
Parivesh (2002): News Letter, Central Pollution
Control Board, New Delhi, Dec, http://cpcb.
nic.in/upload/Newsletters/Newsletters_17_
2002.pdf.
Roy, Subir (2015): Save Lives, Fight Air Pollution,
Business Standard, 24 Feb, http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/subir-roysave-lives-fight-air-pollution-115022401426_1.
html

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