India's Pollution Problem: Holding Industries Accountable

India is one of the most polluted countries in the world, with hundreds of millions of people exposed to toxic air. In 2019, the country declared a war against pollution and launched a National Clean Air Program to bring down levels of deadly particulate pollution by 20-30% by 2024. If successful, this would extend the average Indian's life expectancy by about 1.3 years. However, India's environmental regulations have historically been costly for industries and difficult for the government to implement and enforce. This has resulted in poor compliance and dangerously polluted air.

India is the third-largest carbon emitter in the world

India's energy mix is carbon-intensive, with coal as its primary source of fuel, accounting for approximately 70% of electricity generation. The country also powers much of its transport through oil. As a result, India is the world's third-largest emitter of CO2, despite low per capita CO2 emissions.

India has yet to build a lot of its GHG infrastructure, unlike developed nations. This suggests a need for the country to significantly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. In the meantime, it must invest heavily in methods to combat the emissions problem, such as implementing cleaner operations, stripping emissions of the worst GHGs, and exploring carbon capture.

India's environmental regulators have historically been constrained by poor information on the pollution emitted by manufacturing plants due to high monitoring costs, corruption, or staff constraints. For example, in 2010, regulators in Gujarat faced a problem: they had strong air-quality standards, and the tens of thousands of industrial facilities in the region were reported by their auditors as being in compliance. However, air quality in cities in Gujarat was among the worst in India. This was due to plants selecting and paying their own auditors, creating a clear conflict of interest.

India's environmental regulations are costly for industry and difficult to enforce

India is one of the most polluted countries in the world and the third-largest carbon emitter. Hundreds of millions of people in India are exposed to toxic air, which causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, lung and other cancers, strokes, pre-term birth, type-2 diabetes, and other illnesses.

In 2019, India declared a "war against pollution" and launched a National Clean Air Program to bring down levels of deadly particulate pollution by 20-30% by 2024. If successful, this would extend the life expectancy of the average Indian by about 1.3 years.

However, India's environmental regulations have historically been blunt and inflexible, proving costly for industry and difficult for the government to enforce. For example, in 2010, regulators in Gujarat had strong air-quality standards, but the tens of thousands of industrial facilities in the region were reported by their auditors as being in compliance, and yet air quality in cities in Gujarat was among the worst in India. It was discovered that plants selected and paid their own auditors, creating a clear conflict of interest.

Indian environmental regulators are also constrained by poor information on the pollution emitted by manufacturing plants, due to high monitoring costs, corruption, or staff constraints. A pilot project in Gujarat evaluated the benefits of Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) – technology used to remotely monitor pollution emitted by industrial plants in real time. However, the deployment of CEMS was hindered by an inflexible legal and regulatory framework and collusion between industry and labs to falsify data.

India has declared a war against pollution

In 2019, India launched a National Clean Air Program to bring down levels of deadly particulate pollution by 20-30% by 2024. If successful, this would extend the life expectancy of the average Indian by about 1.3 years.

However, India's environmental regulations have historically been blunt and inflexible, resulting in poor compliance and dangerously polluted air. In addition, regulators have faced challenges due to poor information on pollution emitted by manufacturing plants, high monitoring costs, corruption, and staff constraints.

To address these issues, India is exploring market-based solutions, such as emissions trading approaches, to reduce pollution and carbon emissions at an affordable cost for industries. For example, a cap-and-trade market would involve capping the aggregate quantity of a pollutant emitted by a group of polluting industries.

India's war against pollution is critical to improving the health and well-being of its citizens, as hundreds of millions of people in the country are continually exposed to toxic air, leading to various illnesses, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancers, strokes, pre-term birth, and type-2 diabetes.

Indian regulators lack information on pollution emitted by manufacturing plants

India is one of the most polluted countries in the world, and also the third-largest carbon emitter. In 2019, the country declared a "war against pollution" and launched a National Clean Air Program to bring down levels of deadly particulate pollution by 20-30% by 2024.

However, India's environmental regulations have historically been blunt and inflexible, proving costly for industry and difficult for the government to implement and enforce. This has resulted in poor compliance and dangerously polluted air.

In 2010, regulators in the state of Gujarat had strong air-quality standards, and the tens of thousands of industrial facilities in the region were reported as being in compliance. However, air quality in cities in Gujarat was among the worst in India. The problem was found to be that plants selected and paid their own auditors, creating a clear conflict of interest.

Indian regulators are also constrained by poor information on the pollution emitted by manufacturing plants, due to high monitoring costs, corruption, or staff constraints. For example, in a pilot project in Gujarat, Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) – technology used to remotely monitor pollution emitted by industrial plants in real time – was deployed in an inflexible legal and regulatory framework, and collusion between industry and labs to falsify data was discovered.

Hundreds of millions of people in India are continually exposed to toxic air, which is causing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, lung and other cancers, strokes, pre-term birth, type-2 diabetes, and other illnesses.

A pilot project in Gujarat is evaluating the benefits of Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS)

India is one of the most polluted countries in the world and the third-largest carbon emitter. Hundreds of millions of people in India are exposed to toxic air, which is causing a range of illnesses and reducing life expectancy.

To tackle this, India declared a "war against pollution" in 2019 and launched a National Clean Air Program to bring down levels of particulate pollution by 20-30% by 2024.

However, India's environmental regulations have historically been costly for industry and difficult for the government to implement and enforce, resulting in poor compliance.

Frequently asked questions