Editorial 1 : Three solutions for clean air
Context: Severe air pollution in northern part of the country.
Introduction: Delhi and its surrounding areas have become a gas chamber. With the Air Quality Index (AQI) crossing the 400 mark, it becomes difficult to breathe. Prolonged exposure to severe air pollution could reduce the life expectancy of Delhi residents by 11.9 years.
Fighting Air Pollution
- Framework for tackling air pollution involves credible diagnosis of the problem and appropriate policies and products to fight it.
Factors Affecting the Air
- As winter sets in, the wind velocity slows down in the Himalayan shade, and pollutants (PM 2.5) hang in the air.
- Stubble Burning: During the first half of November 2024, the relative contribution from stubble burning (particularly from Punjab and Haryana) peaked at approximately 35.18% on November 1.
- Delhi’s transport sector, contributing around 19%.
- Other sources impacting particulate matter (PM 2.5) included residential areas (3.9%), industries (4.6%), construction (2.4%), road dust (1.4%), and other sources (1.2%).
- Additionally, 30-35% contribution comes from neighbouring areas such as Gurugram, Jhajjar, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Policies and Products to Reduce the Pollution
- Crop Diversification: 1 to 1.5 million hectares of paddy cultivation in Punjab and Haryana (out of about 4.5 million hectares) need to be diversified to other kharif crops.
- If farmers switch from paddy to pulses, oilseeds or millets, or even kharif maize, much of the input subsidies going to paddy can be saved.
- This will help contain groundwater depletion and GHG emissions.
- Punjab and Haryana offer Rs 17,500/ha to farmers who switch from paddy to other crops. But this incentive is only for one year, and it is too small to make the profits in alternative crops equal to paddy.
- Centre should join hands with Punjab and Haryana governments and double up this incentive to at least Rs 35,000/ha. And this should be assured for at least five years.
- Electric Vehicles: Expedite implementation of Delhi’s Electric Vehicles (EV) policy.
- This policy aims for 25 per cent of all new vehicle registrations to be EVs by 2024, now extended to March 2025, pending the launch of the EV 2.0 policy.
- Given the acute air pollution in Delhi, EV purchases and its charging infrastructure needs to be taken up on war footing.
- Technology: Introduce innovative technologies to capture air pollutants, such as installing vacuum cleaning towers (smog towers) at major traffic crossings and in areas with high pollution levels.
Conclusion: With such a mix of policies, technology, and economics, Delhi can win the battle against air pollution, and then it can be extended to other cities in the Himalayan shade. This is a matter of survival.
Editorial 2 : Treaty to tackle Plastic Pollution
Context: Why the world needs a global plastic treaty
Introduction: 170 countries will converge in Busan, Republic of Korea, to negotiate a new legally binding global treaty to end plastic pollution, including marine pollution. This is the fifth (and final) round of talks since 2022, when the UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA) agreed to develop such a by the end of 2024.
Need for a Plastic Treaty
- Plastic has become almost indispensable for humans and plastic production has skyrocketed across the world in recent decades.
- Plastic production is expected to touch 700 mt by 2040, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
- This has led to a crisis as plastic takes anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, and less than 10% has been recycled till now.
Harmful Effects of Plastics
- Much of the plastic waste leaks into the environment, especially into rivers and oceans, where it breaks down into smaller particles (microplastic or nano plastic).
- This has severely impacted the environment and health of living beings.
- Human Health: Exposure to chemicals in plastic can cause endocrine disruption and a range of human diseases including cancer, diabetes, reproductive disorders, and neurodevelopmental impairment.
- Environment: Plastic also harms species inhabiting marine, freshwater, and land ecosystems.
- Plastic contributes to climate change as well.
- In 2020, it generated 3.6% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with 90% of those quantifiable emissions coming from plastic production, which uses fossil fuels as raw material.
Negotiations
- The final rules may also ban “particular types of plastic, plastic products, and chemical additives used in plastics, and set legally binding targets for recycling and recycled content used in consumer goods.
- There will be talks on ‘just transition’ for workers and those persons and communities whose livelihoods would be affected by the elimination of certain items and a move away from plastic production.
- Countries have been unable to converge on the crucial agenda items and there has been large variance in the positions taken by them.
- Countries have failed to agree on the framing and language of how to proceed with production caps.
- Oil and gas-rich countries, and major petrochemical-producing and plastic-producing nations have opposed negotiations around production caps.
- Ambitious Targets: On the other hand, Rwanda, Peru and the European Union have proposed ambitious targets for curbing plastic pollution. Rwanda has proposed a 40% reduction target by 2040, with 2025 as the baseline year.
- Countries have also not been able to agree on the subject of finance.
India and Plastic Waste
- India contributes to a fifth of global plastic pollution.
- It accounts for 20% of the world’s global plastic pollution with emissions of 9.3 mt, which is significantly more than the countries next in the list — Nigeria (3.5 mt), Indonesia (3.4 mt) and China (2.8 mt).
- India banned the use of single-use plastics covering 19 categories in 2022.
India’s Position on Treaty
- India has made it clear that it does not support any restrictions on the production of polymers.
- India has also sought the inclusion of financial and technical assistance, and technology transfer in the substantive provisions of any final treaty.
- On the exclusion of harmful chemicals used for plastic production, India has said that any decision should be based on scientific studies, and the regulation of such chemicals should be regulated domestically.
- India wants a mechanism to be established to assess infrastructural requirements for scientific and safe waste management.
- According to India there must also be an assessment of the financial resources needed for waste management as well as the availability of adequate, timely, and predictable financial resources.