Policy measures adopted in metro cities: New Delhi

Anumita Roychowdhury

Centre for Science and Environment

The World BankMumbaiMay 14, 2002New Delhi

Urban Air Quality Management

Problems in managing air pollution

There is no national action plan to deal with air

pollution.

The laws are weak and not legally binding. No

punitive action for state governments for not

meeting the ambient air quality norms.

In Delhi, nothing happens till the courts intervene.

Public campaign: A catalyst

November 1, 1996: CSE released Slow Murder: The deadly story of vehicular pollution in India

November 18, 1996: The Supreme Court of India issued suo moto notice to the Delhi government to submit an action plan to control city’s air pollution following the media reports on the CSE study.

December 1996: The Delhi government presented it’s first ever action plan to the Court to combat air pollution in Delhi.

November 1, 1997: CSE released its findings on mortality and morbidity in Indian cities and held government inaction responsible for this.

November 4, 1997: The environment minister announced his plans to issue a white paper on pollution and an action plan by December 2, 1997.

January 7, 1998: The Supreme Court directed setting up of a statutory body to advise Court on pollution control and monitor implementation of Court orders.

Public campaign: A catalyst

Judicial process needs strong technical backup to aid in definitive Judgement

Dramatic spin off as civil society intervenes

1987-1997: The only substantive Court ruling – introduction of cat converters and unleaded petrol.

After 1997: As public campaign gathers momentum, a spate of significant rulings follow.

Court sets the agenda

Important Supreme Court rulings in Delhi

On fuel qualityElimination of leaded petrolPetrol and diesel with 500 ppm sulphur and petrol with 1 per cent benzene Mandated supply of pre-mix petrol to two- and three-wheelers

On vehicle technologyAdvanced enforcement of Euro II emissions standards for both petrol and diesel cars in April 2000

On alternative fuelsMove three-wheelers and taxis to CNG or clean fuelsMove the entire city bus fleet to CNG

Other measuresStrengthen air quality monitoringCreate bus terminus at the city boundaries to bypass incoming trafficSet up two independent fuel testing laboratories to check adulterationDirected special drives to check adulteration

Visible impact

RSPM's declining trend

179191

216200

0

50

100

150

200

250

1998 1999 2000 2001

Year

An

nu

al m

ea

n c

on

ce

ntr

ati

on

of

RS

PM

in

µg

/m3

National standard for annual concentration of RSPM - 60 microgramme per cubic metre

3.3 times of the national standard

Weak governance

Frequently raised doubts about Judicial intervention:

How can court take technology decision on pollution management?

Civil society action and judicial intervention are seen as knee jerk reactions as these are not aligned with larger planning processes, catch industry off-guard not giving enough time to improve, and governments resent Judiciary donning the role of executive.

The answerCourt intervention is the only way to work around the problems stemming from imperfect and weak institutions and regulations.

Poor technical capacity of the institutions to deal with air quality management and lack of political commitment leave no choice.

The Court has proved that it is possible to push industry to meet tighter standards than they are prepared to commit.

Weak governance

The issue: Why even after 15 years of court action basic principles of planning are not in place?

While the government falters on establishing precautionary and health based criteria to guide and implement air quality regulations, the courts rule on the basis of fundamental rights to life, supremacy of public health over economic costs, and polluters pay principle.

The process of the court intervention

Supreme Court

EPCA

Ministry of Road

Transport and HighwaysMinistry of

Petroleum and Natural Gas

Ministry of Environment and Forests

Delhi Governmen

tIndraprastha Gas Ltd

Civil Society Organisation

s

Automobile Industry

Research Institute

s

Responsible for implementation

Monitors progress

Reports to SC,

recommends future action

Transporters

Technical and research

inputs

Weak institutional response

With each ruling need for judicial intervention increases

Example: The ruling on CNG

Implementation of this ruling needed immediate official action in the following areas:

•Emission standards

•Safety Standards

•Infrastructure for distribution of gas

•Fiscal policyBut in each of these areas the court had to define even strategies for implementation

Technical backup

In the absence of official action Court appointed committee had to recommend •Clean fuel strategy for Delhi•Safety regulations for CNG vehicles•The Court had to propose fiscal penalty on diesel buses •And now the pricing policy for CNG

•Price of CNG increased thrice in two years making it costlier than diesel taking away the financial incentive

•No financial incentive to manufacturers or consumers to shift to alternative fuels, except for three-wheelers

Official inaction is broadening the ambit of judicial intervention.

Example: The Supreme Court ruling of April 5, 2002 directs government to firm up clean fuel strategy for critically polluted cities of India.

While assessing the appropriateness of the measures it is not possible to isolate them from the process that has enabled them.

The critical issue is how to improve governance?

Improving governance

Air pollution laws are not legally binding

Today accountability works only if the Court fixes responsibility on officials or imposes penalty on government

Process of integrated planning is not understood

Governance improves only with accountability

Plan without a process An example: Proposed plan for integrated transport and traffic m anagement

Policy Planning Group

Public Transport

Group

Traffic Management

Group

Infrastructure Development

Group

Enforcement Group

Sustainable Public Transport

Promotion, Provision & operation

Monitoring

Support and feeder system

Roads & road structures

Non-motorized & pedestrian sub-systems

Parking & terminals

Inter changes

Maintenance

Enforcement of rules &

regulations

Encroachment

Pollution control

Policy Guidelines

Finance & cooperation

Traffic structures

Provision of land transport

Traffic Management

Strategic action plan for zones

Parking

Road safety

The policy issues for civil societyIdentify leapfrogging options.

Slow incremental process of improving engine and fuel standards is possible in countries in the forefront of technology. Not in India that is lagging behind by more than 10 years.

Introduce special and more stringent fuel and emission standards for pollution hot spots in the country.

But making this quantum leap with the help of clean conventional fuels is turning out to be far more difficult than that based on an alternative fuel strategy. The Supreme court order of moving the public transport to CNG or other clean fuel in Delhi is the first ever step towards a quantum leap.

• Gaseous fuels can also eliminate the problem of fuel adulteration which is a very serious problem in India.

Strategies to technology leapfrogging

A KEY QUESTIONDo we have to go through the same stages of environmental management

that the West went through or can we leapfrog?

Pre-Euro I Poor diesel

Euro I Improved diesel

Euro II Natural gasEuro III

HydrogenEuro IV

Need fiscal instrument

•Need fiscal policies to make clean technologies competitive. Need official policy to promote the transition.

•Need to factor in health costs. Never done till now.

•Notify more enhanced standards (tighter than the conventional fuel standards) for alternative fuel vehicles.

Fiscal policy for technology transition

Example

Delhi has the highest per capita income and the lowest diesel prices compared to other metros.

Entire CNG conversion could have been funded by bringing diesel prices at par with other metros.

In 1998-99, diesel sale in Delhi was 1,451 million litres. An additional sales tax of Re 1 in 1999 and 2000 would have fetched about Rs 300 crore. Increasing the price of diesel to that of Mumbai would have netted the government over Rs. 450 crore in one year.

Road taxes for cars and scooters in Delhi are very low. The road tax for cars in Chennai is twice that of Delhi.

More to do

•Improve air quality surveillance system and inventory process in all cities.

•Develop smog alert system for cities along with pollution emergency measures for an immediate local impact.

•Control in-use vehicles: Comprehensive inspection programme must come along with legally enforceable emissions warranty and recall programme and tighter in-use emissions standards.

•Design appropriate fiscal measures to encourage fast replacement of old vehicles.

•Develop comprehensive transportation plan to control number of private vehicles and promote public transport. Use command and control measures to discourage ownership and usage of private vehicles.

The ChallengeThe real challenge is that even with all interventions and proposed actions, air quality target will remain elusive for a very long time in Delhi.

The challenge ahead

Do we continue to depend on Court for directions on each of these issues listed?

If not then what will be the structured process for addressing these concerns?

•It is possible to bring about change in political attitude and even break bureaucratic resistance through advocacy and information sharing.

•It is also possible to have constructive dialogue with the industry and bring about change. Example, CSE’s green rating project of benchmarking environmental performance of the industry.

•Create a network of regulators to create informed opinion within the regulatory agencies that may catalyse official action.

Thank You