India needs to change course to curb air pollution: World Bank study

The study titled, " Striving for Clean Air: Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia," says that the subcontinent is home to "9 of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution, which causes an estimated 2 million premature deaths across the region each year and incurs significant economic costs." 

The report released on December 14, shows that there are economically feasible, cost-effective solutions to achieve clean air in the region, but this requires countries to coordinate policies and investments. The report gives a detailed overview of current pollution levels, government policies and a roadmap to achieve air pollution goals.

Making a case for revisiting the current approach in combating air pollution in South Africa, the report states that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Air Quality Guideline recommends that concentrations of PM2.5—small dust or soot particles in the air—should not exceed an annual average of 5 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). 

According to the report, in South Asia, nearly 60 per cent of the population lives in areas where concentrations of PM2.5 exceed an annual mean of 35 μg/m3. 

"In the densely populated Indo-Gangetic Plain, it is over 20 times the level that the WHO considers healthy (100 μg/m3 in several locations)."

Terming air pollution as a public health crisis for South Asia, the report highlights that this crisis not only imposes high economic costs but also cause nearly 2 million premature deaths each year.

For India, the report points that the main causes of air pollution are unique to the largest country in South Asia.

Solid fuel combustion in the residential sector for cooking and heating; small industries, including brick kilns; burning high-emission solid fuels; the current management practices of municipal waste in the region, including burning plastics; the inefficient application of mineral fertilizer; fireworks; and human cremation, are among the causes of Air pollution that are unique to India, according to the report. 

Agriculture remains a significant contributor to polluting air by generating secondary particulate matter in the form of ammonia (NH₃) emissions from imbalanced fertilizer use and livestock manure that reacts with nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) gases from energy, industry, and transportation sources. 

"In the western part of South Asia, natural sources, such as dust, organic compounds from plants, sea salt, and forest fires, are an important source of air pollution."

To explain the complex problem of air pollution the World Bank report identifies six major airsheds in South Asia where spatial interdependence in air quality is high.

" Although air pollution travels far in South Asia, not uniformly disperse over the continent, but gets trapped in large “airsheds” that are shaped by climatology and geography."

The six major airsheds identified by the report in South Asia where spatial interdependence in air quality is high are: 

1. West/Central Indo-Gangetic Plain- Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab (India), Haryana, part of Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh

2. Central/Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain- Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bangladesh

3. Middle India- Odisha/Chhattisgarh

4. Middle India- Eastern Gujarat/Western Maharashtra

5. Northern/Central Indus River Plain- Pakistan, part of Afghanistan; and 

6. Southern Indus- Plain and further west: South Pakistan, Western Afghanistan extending into Eastern Iran

The report says that air quality policy measures currently in place as of 2018 can have a significant impact on the trajectory of air pollution in South Asia, if fully implemented and effectively enforced. For example, primary fine particulate matter (such as soot and mineral dust) would decline by 4 per cent rather than grow by 12 per cent between 2018 and 2030, region wide. 

However, the report explains that even if all technically feasible measures were fully implemented, parts of South Asia would still not be able to meet the WHO Interim Target on their own by 2030 because of the spatial interdependence of air quality. 

"Suppose the Delhi National Capital Territory (NCT) were to fully implement all technically feasible air pollution control measures by 2030, while other parts of South Asia continued to follow current policies. This report’s model predicts that the Delhi NCT area would still not meet the WHO Interim Target because the inflow of pollution from outside regions and from natural sources already exceeds 35 μg/m³." 

Roadmap:

The report acknowledged that progress has been made in legislation and planning for AQM, but states that South Asia is not on

track to reach even the modest WHO Interim Target. The report calls for action and gives a three phased approach to achieve targets.

"To achieve more progress—and more cost-effective progress—the policy focus should broaden into other sectors, especially small manufacturing, agriculture, residential cooking, and waste management, which are important sources of air pollution

in South Asia." the report said.

According to the report, along with the broadening of the sectoral focus, coordination of abatement activities within larger areas (within the airsheds) is required. 

"Cost-effective AQM requires more comprehensive monitoring, also outside cities, enhanced scientific capacity, a shared knowledge base, and strong cooperation between governments." 

What makes the report important is that it shows how optimal solutions to reach clean air are economically feasible in South Asia, but their implementation remains a challenge.

In first phase, it recommends steps for "more and better monitoring and improved institutions"

For this it recommends widespread installation of sensors and the data sharing; Creation of credible scientific institutes that analyze airsheds; decentralised Scientific capacity and a strong role of ministries of the environment that is complemented with a whole-of-government approach.

In the second phase, the report states that once the focus broadens beyond cities, other emissions, which are important especially in South Asia, can be reduced. "These include emissions from solid fuel use in households, from brick kilns and ovens in other small industries, from agriculture, and from open burning of solid municipal waste."

The reports calls for mainstreaming air quality in the economy in the third phase. In this phase, the study makes a case for taxation of activities that release pollutants to make cleaner technologies more competitive. Along with this it calls for creating markets for emission-permit trading.

The report goes on to demonstrate significant advantages of Tradable emission permits through Gujarat's example.

" The state of Gujarat recently introduced emission permit trading among 317 high-polluting plants. A critical precondition for this scheme was the installation of a robust monitoring systems in the participating firms. The pilot has been evaluated through a randomized control trial, which shows that it reduced emissions significantly and at lowcost relative to the existing command and control regulation."