00:09Delhi is vast, Delhi is geographically trapped and therefore Delhi's air is poisonous.
00:36Year on year same story, similar script, similar AQI worries.
00:50One more thing that never changes, comparison.
00:54With London, with Beijing, with Paris.
00:58They fixed it many say, but did they actually for us?
01:05Would any of that survive in Delhi?
01:16This is a story of four cities.
01:20Cities that solved a piece of this problem.
01:24And for London, it was the Great Smog of 1952.
01:37For five days in December 1952, a thick fog strangled the streets of London.
01:54A disaster that killed thousands of people and opened the door to a landmark environmental
02:02protection law.
02:12London had long struggled with its air quality.
02:27From the Great Stink that wafted off the Thames' sewage polluted waters in the 1850s, to the
02:39city's epic pea supers.
02:42This was during long periods when emissions from factories and heating stoves suspended
02:48a greenish fog above the streets.
02:55At the time, Britain was a titan in coal production.
03:01The industry peaked in 1913 when the nation produced a full quarter of the world's total coal, a staggering
03:10292 million tons.
03:15London's fight had come down to one question.
03:18How much coal can a home and a factory actually burn?
03:27It was, they were already trying to shift the national economy from coal to oil.
03:33But it was a whole bunch of coincidence at the end, forced them to speed up that process.
03:42But the tragedy was caused by coal, that was correct.
03:45Up to 61% of all the heating in energy supply in London in the early 50s were from coal
03:55burning.
03:58As per the British Meteorological Office, the fog was up to 200 metres thick.
04:04With visibility at near zero, people couldn't see as far as their own feet.
04:12With each passing day, the city emitted up to 1,000 tonnes of smoke and 2,000 tonnes of carbon
04:20dioxide daily.
04:22As the weekend progressed, hospitalisations increased 48%.
04:28London's horror lasted five days.
04:31Delhi's last the whole year and just gets unbearable during those three chilling months.
04:38London's answer was the world's first national air pollution law, 1956.
04:44As per the law, smoke control areas were introduced.
04:49Dirtier fuels were phased out.
04:52Emissions were regulated.
04:54Over time, air quality improved dramatically.
04:58Courts began to hold governments accountable.
05:03The model spread globally and became foundation of air pollution control in many countries, such as US, Japan, Germany and
05:12Australia.
05:14The law was meant to curb the smog that emerged out of excessive coal burning.
05:19London had one villain, coal.
05:22Unlike Delhi, where pollution does not have a single source.
05:36weather conditions.
05:36The law was meant to take pressure to air pollution no matter.
05:49The law was meant to be replaced.
05:56Do you want to take care of what air pollution is?
05:56road density almost 17 kilometer per square kilometer is the road density 88 lakhs vehicle
06:03which fly almost 2.5 crore vehicle kilometer every day consuming almost 1 lakh liter of petrol
06:13diesel and cng so it's a it's a mega city and also almost more than 70 000 vehicle
06:21enters personal and commercial vehicles enters every day sources of pollution in new delhi as
06:28listed by india's commission for air quality management are vehicles biomass burning including
06:35solid fuels for cooking and warmth crop residue dust from roads construction demolition and industrial
06:45emissions stubble is just the seasonal spike sitting on top of a mess that is already there
06:55uk was rescued by a single visible catastrophe that public opinion could rally around
07:03for new delhi the part that actually complicates it every year the stubble that spikes air in october
07:11isn't even burnt in delhi it's punjab haryana uttar pradesh no single authority can control it stopped
07:19without giving any alternatives london solved a london problem with a london law
07:28delhi's problem does not even stay inside delhi
07:34delhi's crisis is a slow bleed not an explosion and slow bleeds don't make anyone act
07:45united states los angeles saw its worst air pollution attack in 1940s
07:52children were told they could not play outside
07:57those angels international airport shut down because pilots could not see the runaway americans
08:05wanted to leave california
08:10as people were confronted by the severe impact of air pollution leaders and ordinary residents
08:16considered the consequences of both industrialization and individual actions on the environment
08:25state and local leaders pointed fingers and called for action restricting the use of backyard trash
08:32incinerators urging for carpools and improved public transportation and investigating nearby oil refineries
08:42later in 1966 california created the first tailpipe emissions standards in the nation
08:52and in 1967 the state established the california air resources board
09:01over the decades los angeles fought back with tough measures the clean air act
09:07strict nitrogen oxide standards limits on garbage burning lead free patrol and cleaner vehicle technology
09:20it took 20 years of lawsuits and regulations for la to clean up together these policies helped
09:28dramatically cut smog and clean up la's air
09:34the us is uh it's quite different from the uk in a way they're more uh i would say expensive
09:41and they
09:44encompassed a more comprehensive they encompassed not just a targeted a few type of data
09:49they monitored all over the uh the country and all the major cities and they have a regulatory framework
09:57so it's much more comprehensive solution so compared to britain the u.s one was a step forward
10:11the new delhi has already done a version of this in 2020 it leapfrogged straight from bs4 to bs6 emission
10:26norms skipping a whole generation of standards cutting diesel particulate matter limits by
10:33roughly 82 percent and did it faster than almost anywhere else in the world fixing tailpipes does
10:40nothing for the agricultural spike while crop fires burn in october but the dust still comes up off every
10:49construction site in june air pollution in delhi which is right now primarily caused by particulate matter
10:59is around the year phenomena it's not something that this is is uh healthy in one particular month
11:06this is almost present beyond the permissible safe limit around the year of course it get accentuated
11:14uh it multiply during winter california could mandate expensive tech because it was regulating a
11:23comparatively wealthy market over a multi-decade timeline
11:30india's fleet is vastly bigger includes a huge price sensitive two-wheeler
11:36and informal transport economy
12:04We will give you money.
12:07foreign
12:43Even Europe is not untouched by the wrath of air pollution.
12:5220 years ago, the air in every part of Paris reached EU pollution limits.
12:57Today however, Parisians are breathing much easier.
13:02PM2.5 pollution levels have dropped 55% since 2005, while levels of nitrogen dioxide have halved over the same
13:11period.
13:12Air pollution-related deaths fell by a third between 2010 and 2019.
13:19Paris did not bother cleaning its tailpipes.
13:23It just took the road away from cars.
13:311,400 km of new bike lanes.
13:3460,000 parking spaces removed.
13:38The Sen expressways permanently close to traffic.
13:41A citywide 30 km per hour speed limit.
13:45And as of 2024, a limited traffic zone banning through from the historic core entirely.
13:52Finally, tripling SUV parking fees in 2024.
13:58Ultimately, to address pollution, the best solution is at the source.
14:03But we have to recognize that this isn't possible in many current environments.
14:07What was the solution that has been implemented in metro stations in Paris?
14:11Areas that are high traffic that are highly polluted.
14:14So railway stations, public transportation stations, intersections where you have high amounts of traffic,
14:20where the predominant mobility device is a combustion engine.
14:24And these areas where we see this spike of content in terms of PM10, PM2.5, PM1,
14:33we can address with this technology in those spots.
14:36But again, I really want to stress, it's a local solution for these areas.
14:40And it has a limited range, 15 to 20 meters per cube.
14:44So again, we can place multiple cubes within this area, depending on the space we have to work with,
14:50that can overall lower the impact or the quantity of these fine dust particles.
14:55Not eliminate them, but lower them to then improve the potential solution impact to our bodies.
15:03What moved the needle was taking space away from cars and handing it to bikes, buses and feet.
15:10And this worked because it ran every single day, all year round.
15:18India has already tried a scaled down version of this, Delhi's odd even scheme.
15:25Rationing road access by license plate parity.
15:28Same basic idea as Paris to reduce vehicle numbers.
15:33But this ran as an intermittent emergency measure with heavy exemptions,
15:38rather than a sustained infrastructure-backed transformation.
15:43Delhi now need to have at least a permanent infrastructure to remove air pollution round the year.
15:51It cannot be a temporary or emergency basis.
15:55The graded response action plan is similar.
16:01Stages one through four kicks in the moment AQI crosses the line.
16:08Constructions are halted.
16:10Heavy transportation vehicles, entries are banned.
16:13Even schools go online.
16:16Grab four, react.
16:18But pollution continues to thrive.
16:21The year round problem persists.
16:24Delhi breathes heavier.
16:29Europe never experienced that type of pollution.
16:32They had coal.
16:34They got rid of coal.
16:35They moved into oil and gas.
16:37Then they had oil and gas pollution.
16:40Then they started encouraging nuclear.
16:43So it's always similar to Britain.
16:47It's a phased transition.
16:49But because China and India are developing countries, they faced with the agricultural legacy,
16:57as well as the newly industrial legacy, and the urban legacy, and the dust, the construction.
17:05It's a multi-source.
17:07That's the difficulty, I guess, faced with developing countries.
17:11How do you deal with this multi-source issue?
17:13That's the biggest difference between Europe and Asia.
17:31From January to July this year, the average density of particulate matter with a maximum diameter
17:35of 2.5 micrometers or PM2.5 dropped by 1.8 micrograms per cubic meter year or year.
17:42A decrease of 6.2%.
17:44Meanwhile, the proportion of days with good air quality rose by 3.9 percentage points over
17:50the same period.
17:56Chinese authorities claim a surreal, but it's still one of the fastest cities to have dealt
18:03with its poisonous skies.
18:08For Beijing, I guess many people, especially for generations before, back in the early 2010s,
18:18there were a few people who watched television news who would have seen those almost devastating
18:24scenes of smogs completely covering the city where people have to wear really thick masks.
18:33Otherwise, you know, they literally cannot breathe outside.
18:41Back in 2005, when Beijing was preparing to host the 2008 Olympics, the satellite data highlighted
18:49it as one of the most polluted cities globally.
18:53The stakes were high.
18:54Even athletes threatened to pull out of the games due to health concerns.
19:00The turning point came in 2013 when the Chinese government announced a five-year action plan
19:06targeting severe air pollution in Beijing and surrounding regions.
19:11As per the plan, factories were forced to upgrade or close.
19:16Citywide lottery limited fossil fuel vehicle registrations, while electric cars and public transport were promoted.
19:24Truck traffic were rerouted to beltways and bike sharing schemes were reintroduced.
19:33It's forcing.
19:35Because the political system, Beijing had the ways and means of issuing order than these factories,
19:43because they're most of them state factories or, you know, run by state affiliated companies.
19:51You move.
19:52I don't care about the cost.
19:54You bear the cost or the government bears the cost.
19:57You move.
19:58If you're set up here and you're blowing pollutions over this way, you move to the other side.
20:07And that simply, I don't know whether it's even feasible in a democratic society or in a more diverse society.
20:17And so that's something very unpopular because it's actually affecting, you know, you imagine people's lives.
20:23Your job was here.
20:25Your factory was here.
20:26Now they're there.
20:27And you need to move with it or you lose your job.
20:30The same thing with domestic.
20:32Lots of you, especially the lower end of society.
20:35They may not have coal as a relatively affordable form of a fuel for them.
20:45For Beijing, results were dramatic.
20:48By 2017, Beijing's PM 2.5 had already fallen 35%.
20:55Independent estimates since put the improvement at well over 60% by 2024.
21:04Each of these cities solved their version of the problem.
21:08Each of them found a model that fit their crisis and none of those shapes match the one India is
21:16standing inside.
21:19Delhi's pollution isn't one crisis.
21:22It's five, arriving from five directions at once.
21:26It's not seasonal as it used to be anymore.
21:32It comes from tailpipes, from factories, by geography that traps all of it under a lid.
21:40No single order can fix that.
21:42No one law, no one borrowed playbook built for a smaller, richer, more centralized place is going to be enough.
21:52Delhi needs something that runs as hard on the 15th of June as it does on the 15th of November.
22:00That's the actual bar.
22:02And that's exactly what India today's pollution solution is hunting for not another winter fix,
22:09not another emergency switch, but something built to survive all 12 months.
22:17Send your entries.
22:18If it's good enough, it does not just make it to the air, it makes it to the chief minister's
22:24desk.
22:24And then Delhi will have its own pollution playbook.
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