India must emulate China to fight pollution

As per Urban Emissions, this year, Delhi burnt around 50 lakh kilograms of firecrackers to celebrate Diwali. This has contributed an additional 150,000 kg of PM 2.5 in the atmosphere that is already four to five times above the World Health Organisation’s safe limit. The good news is that the air quality in Delhi-NCR has improved from ‘hazardous’ level. But the bad news is that it still ‘very poor’ and will continue to be in the same category for a while.

Last week, I wrote about some of the myths surrounding our fight against the problem of air pollution. One such myths is that it’s almost impossible to clean the air. Since then, I have got a lot of feedback asking about what can be done to fight air pollution, especially in a developing country like India. Well, this question can be answered in many ways, and some of them were mentioned in my last column. But, let me give a practical example of how China, a developing country, is successfully fighting its battle against air pollution.

The massive economic growth of China was coupled with an increased energy demand, rapid urbanisation and faster motorisation. The result was rising air pollution in cities. In fact not long back, many cities in China were known for their notorious air quality. A study published in the famous science journal ‘The Lancet’ estimated that 11 lakh people had died prematurely in China due to ambient air pollution in 2015.

But things are different now, as China’s war against air pollution is now beginning to show results. Let me highlight three important takeaways for India:

Measure and monitor

One of the key reasons why there is so much inaction on air quality front is because of the lack of data. China now has a nationwide air quality monitoring system, which records the real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) in seventy-four cities. The capital city, Beijing, now has around 35 air quality monitoring stations, which record pollutants such as PM 2.5. The city now hopes to upgrade the monitoring systems by doubling the total number of air quality monitoring stations. Delhi has only 10 air quality monitoring stations while Gurugram has only one. In addition to the quantity of the monitoring stations, real-time monitoring still remains a challenge in Delhi-NCR.

Specific and measurable targets

China’s Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) set up specific and measurable targets for 2013-17. As per the plan, PM10 concentration in urban areas were to be decreased by 10% by 2017 compared to the 2012 base. Similarly, the deadly PM2.5 concentrations for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region were supposed to be lowered by 25% by 2017. The APPCAP also set up a target of PM2·5 below 60 for Beijing in 2017. However, this is not the end. China’s new plan for tackling air pollution that was published in July this year is more detailed and covers more cities than the one that expired at the end of 2017. The new plan also moves beyond PM2.5, and include gases like ozone in a big way. Hence, we should have similar achievable targets for Delhi and Gurugram and take actions accordingly to achieve and maintain them.

Concrete action on ground

In five years between 2013 to 2017, Beijing replaced four outdated coal-powered plants with gas-based ones. In addition, the city also has a campaign to demolish 39,000 terawatt hours of coal-fired boilers to curb pollution. During this period, the city also refurbished 2.17 million vehicles, which had high emissions and installed three-way catalytic converters for 50,000 taxis. The city has also rolled out of 200,000 new and clean energy vehicles for public transportation. Beijing has also put restriction on the number of private vehicles that can be registered every year. In addition, electric two wheelers are deployed for local freight delivery, thus managing emissions in a very planned and strategic way.

The strategy is already bearing results, as PM 2.5 levels are down by more than one third in 26 surrounding cities of Beijing, while Beijing itself has reported 50% reduction. Researchers have estimated that there were 47,000 fewer deaths in the country due to improved air quality in 74 cities in China in 2017 as compared to 2013.

Apart from the three main technical reasons, the biggest learning from China’s fight against air pollution is that it came from the highest authority of the country. It was President Xi Jinping who made the fight against air pollution country’s main priority.

India cannot and should not blindly copy from China, but it can surely use the framework for solving this problem. Air pollution is not a seasonal but a year-round problem in India, although stubble burning and firecrackers take it to the next level.

(Amit Bhatt is director, integrated transport at WRI)