Lok Sabha Question No. 2512 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-13
Subject: Public-Private-Partnership to Reduce Emissions
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Imtiaz Jaleel Syed

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2512

TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.12.2021

## Public-Private-Partnership to Reduce Emissions

## 2512.  SHRI SYED IMTIAZ JALEEL:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the increasing pollution level in various urban areas across the country;
- (b) the  comprehensive  climate  action  plans  to  control  the  causes  of  rising  pollution  in urban areas;
- (c) whether the Government has plan for instance innovative public-private partnership between  municipal  bodies  and  research  institution  to  reduce  emissions  and  build resilience in cities; and
- (d) whether the Government has any proposal for people who have poor access to basic service and no social security and are exposed to climate and proportionately affected by a changing climate?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a) to (d)

Ambient air quality data in 96 cities showed a decreasing trend of PM10 whereas 36 cities showed an increasing trend of PM10 concentration in 2020-2021 as compared to 20192020.  18  cities  were  found  to  be  within  the  prescribed  National  Ambient  Air  Quality Standard (PM10 less than 60 µg/m3) in 2019-20 which has increased to 27 in year 2020-21. In  the  year  2020,  in  Delhi,  the  number  of  'Good',  'Satisfactory'  and  'Moderate'  days increased to 227 against 108 in 2016.

Government  of  India  has  launched  National  Clean  Air  Programme  (NCAP)  as  a national level strategy to reduce air pollution levels across the country. City Specific Action Plans have been prepared for the identified 132 non-attainment and million plus cities and have rolled out for implementation. These action plans focus on city specific short/ medium/ long term actions to control air pollution from sources such as vehicular emissions, road dust, burning of biomass/ municipal solid waste, construction activities, industrial emissions, etc.

Climate Change is a global collective action problem and requires the cooperation of all  nations  based  on  the  principle  of  'Equity'  and  in  accordance  with  'Common  but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities'.

India  is  a  Party  to  the  United  Nations  Framework  Convention  on  Climate  Change (UNFCCC),  its  Kyoto  Protocol  (KP)  and  the  Paris  Agreement  (PA).  India  submitted  its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to UNFCCC in 2015 which inter-alia includes reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level; to achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel- based  energy  resources  by  2030  with  the  help  of  the  transfer  of  technology  and  low-cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF); and to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

The National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been constituted under NCAP with a vision  to  build  local  technical  capacities.Major  universities  such  as  IITs,NITs  andother academic institutions  are  an  integral  part  of  this  network.Institutes  of  Reputes  (IoRs)  have been identified for every state with non-attainment cities to carry out air quality management research  and  provide  technical  support  to  States  for  improving  air  quality.  States  (State Pollution Control Boards/ Committees and Urban Local Bodies) have signed Memorandum of Understanding with identified IoRs for implementation of various air quality management activities.

Further, government has taken several other steps to control air pollution across the country that will have larger impact on the people irrespective of their socio-economic status and details are at Annexure I

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## Measures taken by the Government for Air Quality Management

## Vehicular Emission

-  Leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles since April, 2020.
-  Network of metro rails for public transport are enhanced and more cities are covered.
-  Development of Expressway and Highways are also reducing the fuel consumption and pollution.
-  Eastern Peripheral Expressway & Western Peripheral Expressway have been operationalised to divert non destined traffic from Delhi.
-  All 10-year-old diesel vehicles are deregistered in Delhi NCR.
-  Environment protection charges (EPC) have been imposed on diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2000cc and above in Delhi NCR.
-  Introduction of cleaner/alternate fuels like CNG, LPG, ethanol blending in petrol.
-  Faster  Adoption  and  Manufacturing  of  Electric  Vehicles  (FAME)  -2  scheme  has  been rolled out.
-  Permit requirement for electric vehicles has been exempted.
-  Promotion of public transport and improvements in roads and building of more bridges to ease congestion on roads.

## Industrial Emission

-  Stringent emission norms for Coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPPs).
-  Ban on use of pet coke and furnace oil in NCR with restricted use of pet coke in cement plants, lime kilns and calcium carbide manufacturing units.
-  Shifting of industrial units to PNG.
-  Installation of online continuous  emission  monitoring  devices  in  highly  polluting industries.
-  Shifting of brick kilns to zig-zag technology for reduction of pollution

## Air Pollution due to dust and burning of waste

-  Notifications of 6 waste management rules covering solid waste, plastic waste, e-waste, bio-medical waste, C&D waste and hazardous waste.
-  Setting up infrastructure such as waste processing plants.
-  Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic and e-waste management.
-  Ban on burning of biomass/garbage.

## Crop Residue Management

-  Under Central  Sector  Scheme  on  'Promotion  of  Agricultural  Mechanization  for  in-situ management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi',  agricultural  machines  and  equipment  for  in-situ  crop  residue  management  are promoted with 50% subsidy to the individual farmers and 80% subsidy for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres.
-  Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) has been launched as an initiative to set up Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) production plants and make CBG available in the market for use in automotive fuels.

## Monitoring of Ambient Air Quality

-  Expansion of air quality monitoring network of manual as well as continuous monitoring stations under programmes such as National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP).
-  Initiation  of  pilot  projects  to  assess  alternate  ambient  monitoring  technologies  such  as low-cost sensors and satellite-based monitoring.
-  Implementation of Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow. The system provides alerts for taking timely actions.
-  Public Complaints regarding air pollution issues in Delhi NCR are taken through 'Sameer App', 'Emails'(Aircomplaints.cpcb@gov.in) and 'Social Media Networks' (Facebook and Twitter).

-  Government  has  launched  National  Clean  Air  Programme  (NCAP)  as  a  national  level strategy to reduce air pollution levels across the country. City Specific Clean Air Action Plans  have  been  prepared  and  rolled  out  forimplementation  in132  non-attainment  and million plus cities.
-  ₹ 375.44 crores have been sanctioned to non-attainment cities under NCAP for initiating actions  such  as  expansion  of  monitoring  network,  construction  and  demolition  waste management facilities, non-motorised transport infrastructure, green buffers, mechanical street sweepers, composting units etc.
-  As  per  the  Fifteenth  Finance  commission  recommendations  ₹4400  crores  have  been released in the Budget of FY 2020-21 to tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population. Further, an amount of ₹12,139 crores has been allocated for improvement of air quality for the award period FY 2021-26.
-  City  Specific  Action  Plans  for  improvement  of  air  quality  has  been  prepared  and approved for implementation.
-  Implementation of the city specific action plans are regularly monitored by Committees at Central and State level namely Steering Committee, Monitoring Committee  and Implementation Committee.
-  PRANA a portal for monitoring implementation of NCAP has been launched.

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