Vehicular emissions, not stubble burning, identified as top cause of Delhi pollution

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The latest analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) reveals that vehicular emissions, not stubble burning, are the primary cause of Delhi's toxic air this winter. The report highlights that despite farm fires being at a multi-year low, pollution levels remain severe due to local sources.

Director general of the Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain, explains that while stubble burning’s contribution has dropped to under 5 per cent, vehicular congestion and nitrogen dioxide levels have spiked. The discussion calls for an urgent, scaled-up plan to upgrade public transport and electrify fleets, while questioning the political will to implement such measures effectively.

Transcript

00:00And I want to turn from there to another issue of public concern, which is the capital's pollution

00:06woes and indeed pollution woes across the country this winter that in several parts show no signs

00:12of easing. A latest analysis has shown that the national capital's toxic air is actually of its

00:18own making and cannot be attributed as it often is to stubble burning. A new analysis by India's

00:25leading environmental NGO, the Centre for Science and Environment, has revealed that the biggest

00:30contributions to Delhi's air pollution are vehicular emissions, not stubble fires this year. The think

00:37tank's report highlights that despite farm fires being at a multi-year low, the capital's air still

00:44remains in the very poor or even severe category. The level of fine pollutants has shown no improvement

00:51since 2022, indicating that pollution control measures being implemented by government agencies

00:58are not effective on the ground. Vehicular emissions in particular are the ones that are spiking and this

01:07spike is what is causing what is being described as a toxic cocktail. What does this really mean?

01:15Are we unfairly targeting the farmers for stubble burning? Is the real crisis vehicular emissions

01:21when it comes to pollution? Sunita Narayan, Director, CSE, which is authored that report, joins me. Sunita,

01:29it's been widely believed even in the past that vehicular emissions account for about 40% of pollution.

01:35Are you saying that could be an even higher number and stubble burning was seen to account for about 17%?

01:40Is that even less if I were to put it in percentage terms?

01:45So, Rajdeep, that's not the percentage. The fact is stubble burning was never on an average 17%.

01:53In this season?

01:54In this season?

01:55Yeah. In this season, it tips us over. And broadly, what we have understood, there are certain days of winter

02:03when in the past when stubble burning could have contributed up to 25% to 30%. And on an average,

02:11as you said, it could be up to 17% in this one month of stubble burning period. What we have found

02:19this year, and that should both worry us, but also it gives us a sense of there is one less thing to worry

02:27about, which is the farm fire, which we were not being able to combat, is that this year,

02:35the pollution from farm fires, partly also because, Rajdeep, as you know, Punjab has been under flood.

02:42There has been huge damage to the crop. And as a result of it, the farm fire contribution to Delhi,

02:50according to government's own data, we have only analysed the data from the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

02:58So, this is not our data. Their own data shows that on an average, it has been less than 5%.

03:05And only on two days did it go up to about 15%.

03:12The rest, but the worry part of it is that pollution remained very high. And you have done shows on it. We

03:20have suffered it. We cannot breathe in Delhi today. And the entire period, pollution has remained high.

03:27Now, this tells us that winter is bad. Weather turns adverse. We know the sources of pollution remain the same.

03:39And between vehicles, between industrial pollution, between waste burning, these are local sources,

03:48and we need to deal with them fast, at an emergency level, and at scale. The problem today is the lack of scale.

03:58It is not about not knowing the source. It is about the scale of action that is needed.

04:03So, let's focus on that, on one of the critical areas that your report points out,

04:08vehicular pollution, which suggests that, therefore, the air quality remains bad right around the year,

04:15certainly higher than acceptable, because of vehicular pollution, along with dust. How do you tackle that on scale?

04:23So, what our report also shows us that there is a direct correlation between congestion, between

04:30pollution, between vehicular movement, and particularly NO2 levels, nitrogen dioxide levels, which are also

04:39very elevated. We also find that carbon monoxide levels are very high. Now, this means that we need

04:46to deal with vehicular pollution and we need to make different categories of it. So, how do vehicles

04:53pollute? Vehicles pollute by the kilometres they travel and by the emission standards that are there.

05:01Now, if you look at private cars, we are adding 500 new cars into Delhi a day. Now, this is data for Delhi

05:11registration only. If you take all of NCR, it would be much higher. We are adding 1,500 new

05:18two-wheelers a day. Now, it is not possible to say people should get off their cars, get off their

05:25two-wheelers when we do not have adequate public transport. So, you need to upscale public transport

05:31at a scale that we have never seen. But we need clean public transport. If you remember, Rajdeep, you were

05:38very much doing shows at that time when we moved towards CNG in Delhi. We moved all buses, all diesel

05:45buses in one year to compress natural gas. We moved all auto rickshaws to compress natural gas. The scale

05:52of it, 100,000 vehicles moved to CNG. That's the scaling we need. Now, if you're talking about public

06:00transport, we need to be able to scale it at that level. Today, we are adding a few

06:05electric buses, which is great. But ridership in buses is going down because there is so much

06:13congestion on the road that buses are stuck in traffic. They've become unreliable. They have

06:18breakdowns. And as a result of it, ridership is down. So, that's one big part of the agenda. And every

06:25time it gets put off saying, oh, this is a long-term agenda. But it's time we started a real solid

06:32upgradation of public transport. But over and above that, we need two other parts of that agenda.

06:39We need trucks, which are really old trucks. We need to make sure that we can move them to better

06:47quality trucks today. Because BS6 trucks today are much lower in terms of emissions. But you cannot

06:55do this one or two. You need a scheme like CNG when you replaced all auto rickshaws. You need to

07:01incentivize this scrappage program. Then you need your autos, your taxis, which travel the maximum

07:09kilometers, 200 kilometers a day, to completely electrify. But again, you need to do that super

07:16fast. Not one here, one there. You need to do it. And with this, you need to make sure you have

07:23car restraint measures, which is high parking. But you can't do that till you provide people an

07:29alternative. You have to get us to move people and not vehicles. It's an agenda that cannot, will not go

07:38away. And be very clear, Rajdeep, we're all stuck in traffic. And now we're not just stuck in traffic,

07:44we're also breathing foul air. And no amount of air purifiers is going to make us healthy.

07:51Those are very strong words. What we need, therefore, is an urgent and scaled-up plan to

07:58control vehicular pollution, in particular, at the very earliest. Does anyone have the political will

08:04to do that? Is a big question or the appetite to do that? Parliament discusses a range of other issues.

08:11Why can't they devote 10 hours to air pollution as well? If you can discuss Vande Matram on its 150th

08:19anniversary, why not, for God's sake, discuss something for today, which is air pollution and find

08:25solutions and come with a consensus and a plan of action. Not just discuss it, but a plan of action.

08:31Implement it. Implementation.

08:33And implement that plan. I take your point. I take your point. Implement that plan of action.

08:38Sunita Narayan, for sharing details of that report, appreciate you joining me here in our continuing focus

08:45on the air emergency.

Vehicular emissions, not stubble burning, identified as top cause of Delhi pollution

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