A bird flies through a thick layer of smog in New Delhi on November 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
Since 1984, when M.C. Mehta filed a public interest litigation petition, there has been a flurry of activity to combat air pollution beginning in October and then a long lull. A lot has been achieved, but the growing economy and population have outpaced these measures. This is not unique to Delhi. Los Angeles established its air pollution control programme in 1947 and currently remains among the worst in the U.S., both for PM 2.5 and ozone. The lesson is that urban toxicity is a ‘wicked problem’ where the problem itself is debated and requires long-term measures.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) began the process of taking a new look at an old problem by asking the government to list the causes of air pollution. However, the National Clean Air Programme, launched in 2019 with its “collaborative and participatory approach,” focus on monitoring, set targets, emergency measures, and inclusion of international organisations, has made minimal impact.
The Supreme Court held the right to a clean environment and good health is an inherent part of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty. This is the context of judicial review moving from guiding government decisions to implementing them.
The court has asked pertinent questions: despite compliance reports why results on the ground are negligible and what the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), set up in 2021, is doing? It has been dealing with the symptoms developing linear solutions and not responding to interdependent causes driven by rapid urbanisation. The challenge is to move away from coordination between discrete administrative units and enforcement, which is also the standard response of the Delhi government, to transformative action.
The population of the city and the surrounding area significantly contributes to year-round toxicity because of vehicular emissions and traffic congestion. Driven by sunlight and low temperatures, a photochemical reaction combines hydrocarbons from the partially unburned exhaust of automobiles with nitrogen oxides, a combustion by-product, to form ozone. This concentration of particulate matter (PM 2.5) causes serious health problems.
Dispersed sources
In Delhi, Los Angeles, and Beijing, 60% of toxicity comes from vehicles. Another 20% comes from soil dust and less than 20% is from other sources. Stubble burning is temporary and official data show its share in Delhi’s PM 2.5 was less than 1% on October 17, prompting the Delhi government to set up committees for dust control.
Editorial | A consistent response: On air pollution responses in Delhi
The usual response to point sources of pollution — legislating new technology and enforcing stringent prosecution — does not work for dispersed sources, which have a strong societal component and few viable options. For example, 35 years ago, when new vehicle emission standards were being discussed, Rahul Bajaj argued that his foreign collaborator was not parting with technology and that he needed two years to develop his own. The government successfully explained the situation to Parliament and the court.
Today, the farmers of Haryana and Punjab are in a worse situation. To conserve groundwater, they are required to delay sowing, reducing the time between harvesting and planting the next crop, and technological solutions have not worked.
The Supreme Court is not adjudicating between the fundamental rights of the farmers and those of the residents of Delhi to implement a management plan. We have a case of goal displacement, with Haryana and Punjab being pushed to bear the burden of providing clean air to Delhi, even as Delhi itself is not being similarly prodded.
Delhi is facing the classic bureaucratic response to a complex political problem. Cosmetic steps, unverified claims, statistical compliance, and shifting responsibility, were earlier noted by the NGT. This raises the question of whether the CAQM can discharge a political function for the needed hard choices.
A review of Beijing’s approach to controlling air pollution by the United Nations Environment Programme provides useful lessons. The population sizes of both cities are comparable, and Delhi shares with Beijing, and other cities, the three stages of dealing with urban air pollution as a long-term task. It begins with end-of-pipe air pollution control, gradually moving to integrated measures targeting primary pollutants, with the government playing the main role. Later, the focus shifts to secondary pollutants, or particulate matter leading to toxic smog, primarily PM2.5, which requires a regional mechanism, our current stage. The similarity ends there.
The UN review points to Beijing’s techno-political management system, which builds public awareness to deal with toxicity. First, forecasting severe smog levels through warnings issued at least 24 hours in advance with over 1000 PM 2.5 sensors throughout the city to accurately monitor high-emission areas and periods. Second, Beijing has over 30,000 low-floor buses, five times the number operated by Delhi Transport Corporation. Third, both Beijing and Delhi, as transit centres with no peak-hour traffic, require additional measures to manage regional transportation.
The Court should be mandating the Graded Response Action Plan and the preparation of a toxicity management plan for the national capital and surrounding areas with budgetary allocations and political endorsement rather than episodic prosecution of farmers or requiring smog towers.
Mukul Sanwal served as policy adviser to the Executive Director of UNEP and later to the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and was closely associated with Inter-Agency Relations in the Chief Executives Board of the UN
Published – November 21, 2024 01:09 am IST