A Breath of Toxic Air

Common Cause Petition on Green Mobility

Swapna Jha*

Air pollution has again been named the greatest threat to human health in India in 2022, as it reduces life expectancy by five years.1 The United Statesbased think tank which came out with the report, also offers some comparisons to dial up the horror. It hints that five years is an extraordinary number, given that child and maternal malnutrition cuts down average life expectancy by about 1.8 years, while smoking by 1.5 years.2

Common Cause has been striving to redirect the gaze of policymakers towards recognising health and clean environment as fundamental rights of citizens

Yes, these are just numbers. They send human rights watchdogs scrambling to put the house in order and set corrective measures in motion. The release of the report has been followed up with a flurry of action. The National Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of media reports on the US think tank study, asking the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to respond to it.3

Research reports, time and again, have put the dangers of air pollution in black and white. Yet the narrative around it stays rhetorical. Common Cause has been making efforts to address the failure of government policies to incentivise the adoption of electric vehicles in the country. It has also been striving to redirect the gaze of policymakers towards recognising health and clean environment as fundamental rights of citizens.

In the following paragraphs, we list selected extracts from the petition filed by Common Cause, Centre for Public Interest Litigation and Jindal Naturecure Institute to ensure the protection of the citizens’ right to health and clean environment guaranteed under article 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

To make tangible strides in decarbonising the transport sector, the petition filed in the Supreme Court in 2019, sought directions for the implementation of the recommendations of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP), 2020. The policy roadmap was promulgated in 2012 by the Ministry of Heavy Industries ( nodal agency for the automobile sector ).

The petition also prayed for the implementation of the recommendations of the report titled ‘Zero Emission Vehicles: Towards a Policy Framework,’ which was brought out by the Niti Aayog in September, 2018. The report had a battery of suggestions to address climate change events, air pollution and bring down the cost of fossil fuel imports.

Our plea lists various inadequacies in the implementation of the NEMMP. Although the government promulgated the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme in 2015, offering subsides to consumers, it failed to

Governmental apathy and inaction in shifting to cleaner modes of transport is responsible for virtually turning our cities into ‘gas chambers’

mandate demand and build charging infrastructure. These are the two critical bottlenecks in the wide scale adoption of electric vehicles, as per consumer surveys conducted by an IIM AhmedabadUNEP study.

The petitioners also highlighted other crucial gaps in the scheme. The NEMMP had called for an investment of Rs 14,500 crore from the government to kickstart the demand and creation of charging infrastructure for green vehicles. However, in December, 2018, the government informed the Parliament that it had thus far allocated less than Rs 600 crore over a period of seven years towards the entire scheme.

Following are the edited and curated extracts from the petition, that trace the role of electric vehicles in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality, India’s green ambitions, the tragic health outcomes of pollution and other reasons to catalyse the adoption of electric vehicles. The complete petition can be read here: https://bit.ly/3No2Ies

The Petition:

India’s Green Pledges

Electric vehicles (EV)s are the preferred technology to alleviate the effects of pollution both in terms of the total ‘life cycle’ cost of ownership and ‘life cycle’ emission of pollution vis-a-vis fossil fuel based vehicles. The burning of fossil fuels has been leading to a rapid build-up of carbon and related green house gases into the atmosphere leading to the problem of global warming, climate change, and air pollution.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change ratified by India in 2016, requires the member countries to make binding commitments to curb carbon dioxide emissions to keep global average temperatures from rising above 1.5°C as compared to the pre-industrial years. India has committed to reduce its carbon emission intensity —emission per unit of GDP —by 33-35% from 2005 levels over 15 years. However, being the 3rd biggest emitter in the world, we as a nation, have been failing to curb the emissions. The unchecked increase in emissions is partly attributable to emissions from fossil fuel based vehicles. Unabated emissions from fossil fuel based vehicles has led to severe air pollution in our cities. Governmental apathy and inaction in shifting to cleaner modes of transport is responsible for virtually turning our cities into ‘gas chambers’.

Violation of Right to Health

Pollution resulted in more than 23 lakh premature deaths in India in 2019, highest in the world, a study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal has revealed.

World Health Organization’s report titled ‘Air Pollution and Child Health: Prescribing Clean Air’ shows that nearly all Indian children—98 per cent— breathe unsafe air that exceeds WHO guidelines. Early exposure to air pollution affects brain and neurological development, and lung function.

Niti Aayog on EVs

Historically, mobility and fossil fuels have been inextricably linked, with electric vehicles being successful only in a few niche markets. However, over the last decade, a collection of circumstances has conspired to create an opening for electric mobility to enter the mass market. As per Niti Aayog’s report ‘Policy Framework on Zero Emission Vehicles,’ these forces include:

  • (i) Climate change: The prospect of rapid global temperature increase has created the need for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels and the associated emissions. India has committed to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 33% to 35% below 2005 levels by 2030.
  • (ii) Advances in renewable energy: Over the last decade, advances in wind and solar electricity generation technologies have drastically reduced their cost and introduced the possibility of clean, low-carbon and inexpensive grids. India proposes to add 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2020 and to achieve 40 per cent of its electricity generation from non-fossil sources by the same year.

Falling Costs

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has informed the Cabinet that record low Solar and Wind tariffs at Rupees 2.44/ unit have already been achieved4. This is much lower than the average tariff for coal or gas based power plants. As of March, 2018, total installed capacity of renewable energy is 69.2 GW, whereas total installed capacity of conventional sources of energy as of June, 2018, is 346 GW. India is on course to meet the target of commissioning 175 GW of renewable energy, including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind power by 2022.

Global Best Practices

Developed economies such as EU, USA, Japan, Nordic Countries, as well as developing economies such as China and India have all included EVs in their policies to lower their carbon emissions.

India’s Electric Vehicle Policy

Broadly, the comprehensive NEMMP-2020 was prepared after extensive research and consultation with all stakeholders. It was promulgated by the nodal agency for the automobile sector i.e. the Ministry of Heavy Industries in 2012. The Plan already recommended the necessary incentives and disincentives. It aimed to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country. There was also an ambitious target to achieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles year on year from 2020 onwards.

The policy was to provide fiscal and monetary incentives to kickstart the ZEV (zero-emission vehicle) industry. The thrust of the policy was to allow hybrid and electric vehicles to become the first choice for the purchasers. This would help replace the conventional vehicles and thus reduce liquid fuel consumption in the country from the automobile sector.

However, the FAME India scheme of 2015 fell woefully short of adopting the recommendations of NEMMP-2020. As a result, the objectives of the NEMMP-2020 have been defeated. The NEMMP-2020 envisioned that India would adopt close to 7 million electric vehicles by 2020, if its recommendations were adopted. However, as of January, 2019, only 0.263 million electric vehicles had been adopted in India pursuant to the FAME India scheme. FAME India’s data shows that the 0.261 million electric vehicles sold thus far have resulted in total fuel savings of 39358338 litres and total reduction in CO2 emissions of 98270937 kg.

We prayed for directions to the government to adopt and implement the recommendations made under NEMMP-2020

Prayers

Among many things, we prayed for directions to the government to adopt and implement the recommendations made under NEMMP-2020 and those of the Niti Aayog in its Zero Emission Vehicles policy framework. The implementation should specifically pertain to demand creation, creation of requisite charging infrastructure, and system of ‘feebate.’ There should be multiple measures initiated in this regard, including mandating assured demand and providing demand side incentives to consumers to bridge the gap in initial cost of acquisition. The government should also set standards for charging infrastructure, create requisite charging infrastructure for buses at bus depots, as well as in appropriate densities in the cities etc.

Orders

Taking note of the petitioners’ contentions, a Bench of then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna ordered the government to apprise it of the status of implementation of the FAME-India scheme in March 2019. Unfortunately, this important petition has been lying in the cold storage for quite some time.

Conclusion

The World Health Organization calls air pollution a “public health emergency.”5 Everyday toxic air is killing people and causing neonatal disorders. We do not need to look at studies to experience the suffocation and unease from inhaling toxic urban air. Why no effective pollution controls are initiated despite the Capital breathing in poisonous air every day is anybody’s guess. Since its 2018 report, even the Niti Aayog, in other successive action plans and campaigns (‘Breathe India’ etc) has highlighted the urgency of a green transport switch. This is prescribed as an antidote to air pollution and the climate crisis. The government needs to listen. Or the death and disease burden will weigh too heavy

Image Courtesy: Divyanshoo Singh and Anshi Beohar


* Swapna Jha is Senior Legal Consultant at Common Cause


Endnotes

  • (1) Air Quality Index-Fact Sheet. EPIC-India. (2020). Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://bit.ly/3tLYxBY
  • (2) Air Quality Index-Fact Sheet. EPIC-India. (2020). Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://bit.ly/3tLYxBY
  • (3) Scroll Staff. (2022, June 25). Centre gets NHRC notice on report that air pollution shortens lifespan of Indians by five years. Scroll.in. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://bit.ly/3AdBmVj
  • (4) Dash, J. (2018, November 14). India to attract investments worth $80 bn in renewable energy: Report. Business Standard. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://bit.ly/2Tca4XH
  • (5) Gupta-Smith, V., & Neira, M. Episode #66 - Air pollution, a public health emergency. World Health Organization. (2022). Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://bit.ly/3bCwChS

NEXT »

Common Cause Updates >>

April-June 2022