India: A race against time to improve air quality

Air pollution is a serious threat that takes the lives of seven million people around the world, which is why it is considered the greatest threat to environmental health by the World Health Organization (2018), due to It causes and aggravates many diseases, from asthma to cancer, lung and heart disease. It also has economic repercussions, with an estimated daily cost calculated at US$8 billion per day, which is approximately 3.3% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Farrow, Miller and Myllyvirta, 2020).

Having established the seriousness of air pollution on human health, this article will seek to delve into the current situation and policies of Asia's second largest economy: India. Defined as the most serious problem facing today, according to the IQAir Report 2021 (2021), India ranks number five in the countries with the highest air pollution, with an annual concentration of 58.1 PM2.5, when the maximum guideline value established by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 5, as an annual average (World Health Organization, 2021).

The so-called concentrations of PM2.5, in micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3), is a measurement that is selected as the standard metric, since it is a particulate matter consisting of fine aerosol particles measuring 2.5 microns or diameter, and also "is one of the six routinely measured criteria air pollutants accepted as the most harmful to human health" because of its prevalence in the environment and the wide range of effects it has on health (IQ Air, 2021).

Table 1. The most polluted cities in the world (historical data 2018-2021). Classification of the most polluted cities according to the average annual concentration of PM****2.5 (μg/m³)

Source: IQAir, 2021.

Table 1 shows that of the ten cities with the highest PM2.5, in other words, with the highest air pollution, six are in India, which is a worrying factor but one that needs to be deepened.

Air pollution has a massive impact on human health in India. It is the second largest risk factor for disease, and the economic cost of air pollution is estimated to exceed $150 billion annually. Major sources of air pollution in India include vehicular emissions, power generation, industrial waste, biomass combustion for cooking, the construction sector, and episodic events such as crop burning (IQAir, 2021, p . twenty-one).

A study by Greenpeace (2016) ensures that, in New Delhi, the capital of India, 1% of sulfur dioxide (SO2), 36% of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 20% of PM2.5 come from emissions from vehicles and 90% of sulfur dioxide (SO2), 52% of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 11% of PM2.5 come from industrial sources, which supports the information in Graph 1, which shows the Industry as the largest generator of pollution.

Likewise, in a range of 6 years (from 2009 to 2015) an increase of 13% of PM2.5 particles is noted, only in the cities of the North of the country (Greenpeace, 2016). But, without a doubt, the most revealing finding of this study is the one made by Dr. Zhoir Chowdhury on the chemical composition of PM2.5 pollution, from which he discovered that at least ¼ of the pollution in New Delhi is directly related to coal (Greenpeace, 2016).

According to Greenpeace (2016), by burning coal, industries release SO2 and NOx into the atmosphere, highly polluting components that, together with PM10 and PM2.5 particles, are responsible for poor air quality in cities. To combat it, a reduction in SO2 and NOx from power plants is necessary, a factor considered decisive for there to be a considerable decrease in the amount of PM10 and PM2.5 particles in the environment, and therefore improve air quality. long-term.

When analyzing the energy sector of India by source of installed generation capacity, the following graphs were made:

Coal continues to be the main source of installed generation capacity in Mega watts for 51%, although it is followed by renewable energies with 28%, being the second most important source, followed in third position by hydroelectric with 12% (Government from India, 2022). A look at the Asian country's Energy Sector seems to indicate a large percentage of renewable energy, however, it also still shows a dependence on coal.

So, with Greenpeace's research, it can be concluded that coal is responsible for at least ¼ of air pollution. Regarding this, Guttikunda, Jawahar and Goenka (2015) mention that "coal continues to be the main fossil fuel for energy generation in India", in their article they also analyze how air pollution that is generated has a strong impact on health. generated in coal-fired power plants. The authors come to a worrying conclusion, if coal-fired power remains high, “the environmental effects of increasing air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and the cost to human health will all be high” (Guttikunda, Jawahar and Goenka, 2015).

With this same information, the capacity generated by each renewable energy is distributed, with solar energy being the one with the largest capacity in the energy sector in India.

Faced with this, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its report on the 'Energy Outlook of India' (2021) points out that solar energy in this country is preparing for "explosive" growth, and is expected to equal the percentage share of coal in the power generation mix two decades from now, according to the Stated Policy Scenario (STEPS) or sooner according to the Sustainable Development Scenario (IEA, 2021).

This commitment to solar energy is being driven by political ambitions, specifically the objective of “reaching 450 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, and the extraordinary cost competitiveness of solar energy, which surpasses existing coal energy by 2030 ” (IEA, 2021). On the other hand, “coal advocates argue that a developing country with greater energy needs like India is not ready for renewables to completely replace fossil fuel” (Hemalatha, 2020).

Even to align with the global goal of maintaining a limit of 1.5°C established in the Paris Agreement, Climate Action Tracker (2021) makes the suggestion that India should phase out the use of coal from its electricity sector by 2040. , “The National Electricity Plan (NEP) in 2018 is expected to add more than 45 GW of capacity to coal by 2027 and a recent report shows that India's coal capacity will increase” (Climate Action Tracker, 2021), this An unnecessary increase in emissions would jeopardize the country's commitments to the global climate agenda.

But, although there are efforts by India to control the poor air quality in the long and wide of the territory, by investing in clean energy, there are still no conclusive changes. Even the Government of India, as a way to reverse the current situation of air pollution and in response to political and social demands, launched in 2019 the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), which provided in time a roadmap to prevent, control and reduce harmful air pollution (Jaiswal, 2019).

This Program sought to expand the national air quality monitoring network, build air pollution management capacity, and strengthen public awareness of the dangers of pollution (Jaiswal, 2019). It is a national strategy with specific deadlines with the objective of reducing pollution levels by reducing the concentration of deadly particles, from 20 to 30% of PM2.5 and PM10 by 2024 (Ministry of Environment, Forests and Change Climate, 2019). Even so, although the program includes strategic control and monitoring points, contamination has not had a significant reduction.

Diesel fumes, construction dust, emissions from coal plants, and smoke from huge rows of crops combine to form a layer of smog, thickened by relatively cool air and little wind (Gettleman, Schultz and Kumar, 2017).

Likewise, the World Bank (2021) is supporting the Indian government in the good implementation of measures to combat worrying levels of pollution. Regarding the actions of the government, he emphasizes that:

The Indian government is considering a review of its ambient air quality standards and has strengthened vehicular and industrial emissions standards in recent years. A strong emphasis on the expansion of renewable energy, the promotion of electric vehicles and the supply of LPG cooking fuel to millions of households (World Bank, 2021).

These are just a few examples of the actions the government has taken to combat air pollution. Since there are several measures implemented over time, on the most recent which was the NCAP, Kumar (2022) concluded that "India is failing in its efforts to improve the quality of toxic air, and the number of cities plagued by smog has increased since the launch of a national program to address the problem.

Kumar (2022) argues that limited funding, a lack of stricter emissions standards for industries (including metal smelters and oil refining), and slow progress in adding monitoring stations are factors hindering development. work to improve air quality, noted the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Kumar, 2022).

Conclusions

India faces various environmental conflicts, but thanks to this research it can be seen that the most serious of them is air pollution. This, coupled with the fact that India is the third largest CO2 emitter in the world, puts it in an unfavorable position.

India has a big challenge ahead, mainly because it has the possibility to take advantage of the use of clean energy, but since they continue to use coal for electricity generation, this increases emissions, which puts the goal of zero carbon in 2070 that the Prime Minister Modi at the recent COP26, on a stage far away when drastic measures are now needed. The situation is critical, coal and solar energy are not compatible, although India has both running and operating in its country, coal continues to cause many ills: increased CO2 emissions, other greenhouse gases, negative detrimental to the health of its citizens and dealing with toxic air that only worsens the quality of life.

This health, environmental and economic problem jeopardizes the Indian government's ability to overcome a situation that has strong collateral damage and that has shown that the measures taken so far are not enough. It then remains to be seen what decision the government makes in the coming years, and whether it will be able to give up coal or at least set a reduction in its use.