Editorial 1 : El Nino, La Nina
Introduction: A new study has linked air pollution over cities like Delhi and Mumbai to external factors like El Nino and La Nina, and climate change. This is the first time that such external phenomena have been noticed to have an impact over air quality in Indian cities.
What is El Nino and La Nina?
- El Nino and La Nina are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific Region. They are opposite phases of what is known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.
- The ENSO cycle describes the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial Pacific.
- El Nino and La Nina episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years.
- El Nino is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
- It is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
- It occurs more frequently than La Nina.
- La Nina, the “cool phase” of ENSO, is a pattern that describes the unusual cooling of the tropical eastern Pacific.
- La Nina events may last between one and three years, unlike El Nino, which usually lasts no more than a year.
- Both phenomena tend to peak during the Northern Hemisphere winter.
What are the impacts of ENSO on air quality?
- To be sure, these external factors do not generate any new sources of pollution.
- But they have the potential to influence the distribution of pollutants over different regions by altering meteorological conditions like wind patterns and temperatures.
- The study found that the fact that Delhi air was cleaner than usual, and Mumbai air dirtier than usual in the winter of 2022 could, in part, be explained by the record-breaking La Nina event in the Pacific Ocean, which was persisting for the third consecutive year at that time.
- The study also suggested that under climate change scenarios, expected to exacerbate the strengths and frequencies of El Nino and La Nina kind of events, such external influences might have a bigger role to play in the distribution of air pollutants over Indian cities.
Will the La Nina impact the air quality every year?
- These influences are pretty weak as of now.
- As the study suggests, only very strong El Nino or La Nina events are likely to have any significant impact on the local meteorological conditions.
- But this could still have implications for India’s efforts to clean up its air.
- The influences could potentially grow stronger under climate change scenarios as the study suggests, and that would mean that clean-up measures would face another hurdle that is completely beyond human control.
- This could result in entirely unexpected scenarios, as was seen in Mumbai in the 2022 winter, something the cities are not prepared for.
How air quality can be improved after this discovery?
- Tackling the emissions of pollutants at the source still remains the most effective way of addressing air pollution.
- Air in Indian cities is dirty because the baseload emissions are very high.
- Once in a while, favourable meteorological conditions might help in reducing the impacts, but there is no short-cut to cutting down on baseload emissions.
- Fancy, or quick fix, solutions like artificial rain or odd-even schemes are nothing more than window dressing, and quite ineffective at that.
Conclusion: The study recommends that the focus of the government must remain on long-term strategies to reduce emissions from the sources themselves and not rely on quick-fix solutions. That would be a win-win solution for both air quality and climate change.
Editorial 2 : Greening growth
Introduction: Governments in developing countries face a dilemma, a political-economy conundrum that requires a fine balancing act. This dilemma is the choice between development or environmental conservation.
What is the current dilemma of developing nations?
- On the one hand, in light of climate change and the degradation of fragile and vulnerable ecologies, there is a need for regulation of projects that have a potentially adverse environmental impact.
- On the other hand, investment and infrastructure development are crucial for employment generation and poverty alleviation.
How has India tackled the development vs environment issue?
- The provision of Environmental Clearance (EC) under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) rules — notified in 2006 under the Environmental (Protection) Act — was meant to strike the right balance between the imperatives of growth and development and the environment.
- The EC is meant to be mandatory for various projects, including mining, thermal plants, those in river valleys, and infrastructure and industrial programmes.
- Unfortunately, the balance between environment and industry seems to be tilting far too much towards the latter.
How EIA is becoming biased toward development?
- In 2017, the government brought in a loophole to the EIA and gave a six-month moratorium to all the companies that had not complied with the requirements to receive an EC.
- This one-time window was made indefinite under the revised Standard Operating Procedures in 2021.
- The notification was challenged before the Madras High Court, which granted a stay order.
- The Centre, however, interpreted the order as applying only to Tamil Nadu.
- Then, in January 2024, the Supreme Court stayed the notification, and the Court’s final decision is pending.
- In essence, between 2017 and 2024, over 100 projects — they include coal, iron and bauxite mines, steel and iron factories, cement plants and limestone quarries — have been granted ex post facto environmental clearance under the diluted EIA, their original lack of EC notwithstanding.
Is environmentalism and development a zero-sum game?
- Environmental clearances for business and infrastructure projects have been a fraught issue for decades.
- Under multiple governments and environment ministers of varying ideological leanings, the pendulum has swung both ways: At different points, the Environment Ministry has been dubbed either “anti-business” or “anti-environment”.
- However, by any standard, the weakening of the EIA, and the National Green Tribunal, is a matter of deep concern that needs to be addressed urgently — in 2020, an Environmental Performance Index of Yale University ranked India 168 amongst 220 countries.
- Perhaps the only sustainable way to do this is to not see “environment” and “development” locked in an inevitably zero-sum game.
The way forward
- It’s time to move to environmentalism as development and development as environmentalism.
- As climate change and sustainability increasingly become a part of the global business conversation, India has the opportunity to be a leader in this regard.
- This will, however, require a robust policy and regulatory framework, which while facilitating business, allows for a careful assessment of the adverse impacts of projects, and does not constantly search for and seize the loopholes.
Conclusion: Weakening processes of environmental clearances for business and infrastructure projects hurt both the environment and development.