New Delhi [India], November 11 – Environment experts have again voiced concern over rising vehicular pollution in the national capital with onset of winter while farmers burn stubble in fields across neighbouring states after the harvest of rice and before they can sow the next wheat crop.
More worryingly, Delhi sources 30 per cent of its power needs from coal-based thermal power plants that do not meet emission standards.
According to Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the Delhi government sources over one-third of its total power needs from coal-based thermal power plants (TPPs) that do not meet emission norms for particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen as stipulated by the Environment Protection Act 1986.
The city-state has contracts with several coal-based TPPs across the country from which it sources about 5,000 megawatts power.
This year, say several experts, coronavirus (Covid-19) will make it even worse as the virus attacks our airways and so does air pollution.
Vehicular pollution remains the top contributor to toxic pollutants in air. The government introduced Bharat Stage (BS) VI fuel which is cleaner than BS IV petrol and diesel. But in a country like India where vehicle fleets change slowly, the real impact of this is still not visible.
On the other hand, many people are wary of using public transport with the fear of virus. They are not taking the bus or the metro railway but jumping into private transport. The rush of traffic remains a key cause of air pollution.
However, there is another big worry. The two coal-fired TPPs Delhi had – one at Rajghat and another in Badarpur – were shut in 2015 and 2018 respectively in a bid to bring down pollution levels in the city. The ruling AamAadmi Party has, however, said when the Delhi government can shut down its power plants, then why cannot the other states do the same.
Coal-based power is one of the most resource-intensive and polluting industries. On December 7, 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) introduced stricter environmental standards for coal-based thermal power plants under the Environment Protection Act 1986.
While all TPPs were required to comply with the revised standards by December 2017, the deadline was pushed to 2022. The CSE research, however, shows that several power plants across the country would not meet the 2022 deadline to contain pollution due to particulate matter, nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide.
CSE researcher SoundaramRamanathan says the Delhi government should factor in the efficiency and pollution-causing potential of these TPPs while handing contracts to them.
According to the CSE report, the industry has been giving excuses and the deadline was pushed to 2022. CSE analysis shows that even this deadline will not be met by 65 per cent of the installed capacity. It is, however, to be noted that 35 per cent of the capacity is still striving to meet the norms.
The report titled ‘Meeting Emission Norms: CSE working paper on penalty and incentive mechanisms for coal-based power plants’ calls for incentivising coal-based TPPs that comply with revised pollution norms and penalising those that do not.
