TERI Yearender 2020

More than 70% of Indian cities don't meet prescribed national standards of air quality. Air pollution in North India/Indo-Gangetic plains is a broad, year-round issue, not just an episodic problem. In 2020, we made the case for tackling air pollution at a regional ‘airshed’ level, supported the National Clean Air Programme through a set of sectoral recommendations, and launched projects in key Indian cities to demonstrate viable action plans for cleaning our air.

Could the National Capital Region serve as a control region for effective air quality management in Delhi?

At the onset of winter when the crop residue in North India was ritually set on fire, it triggered alarming levels of ‘poor’ and even beyond ‘severe’ air quality in the region. As air does not follow administrative boundaries, pollution also does not occur in silos. The issue needs to be tackled at the regional 'airshed' level at which it is caused. Our analysis suggested that the National Capital Region (NCR) could form a good approximation for one such airshed boundary, and that tackling the much-scrutinized air pollution issue in Delhi would benefit from greater coordination at the NCR level.

In October 2020, the government brought in a new law through ordinance to set up a commission to tackle the problem of air pollution in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas, was given jurisdiction over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan- states which impact the Delhi-NCR air quality. Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI was appointed as a member of the Commission, representing non-government organisations.

We need to ensure that these members have the capability to bind together the states into air quality solutions that can and will solve our air quality problems. This is the first governance change we have had in over three decades in the pollution control sector and it deserves to be welcomed.

Dr Ajay Mathur

DG, TERI

Earlier in the year, at the plenary session on Strengthening NCAP for Breathable Air at the World Sustainable Development Summit 2020, TERI identified key measures to significantly reduce air pollution at the national level. This included promoting clean fuel for cooking, fleet modernisation, emission control in power plants and agricultural residue management in India.

But then 2020 was an unusual year. Due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown, people caught a glimpse of the Himalayas from 200 km away as PM 2.5 levels dropped by an average of 30% between March and May in India.

COVID-19 lockdown: Cleaner air and health benefits

At a great socio-economic cost, we got to see saw blue skies and clean air for a brief while. It was a momentary respite as our preliminary research did draw the corelation between highly polluted regions in India also suffering the highest death tolls due to COVID.

Amidst the lockdown, we kickstarted the virtual workshops with city authorities under the Clean Air Project to reduce air pollution in four Indian cities: Lucknow and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and Pune and Nashik in Maharashtra. The CAP India programme focuses on improving data measurement, enhancing capacities of city and state authorities to implement clean air policies and action plans, and raising public awareness for clean air action.

Aiming for blue skies, we have now set upon developing multi-sectoral, multi-pollutant emission inventory for India for CPCB and MoEFCC. The assessments are based on activity level data on energy consumption in different sectors, mostly indigenous emission factors and controls implemented in different sectors.