Is Delhi Doing Enough to Tackle Climate Change?

As we all know, climate change is causing uninterrupted changes on the globe, like sea-level rise, ice-melting, flooding, and the wildfires we’re seeing rip across Australia. Due to immense energy demand and sprawl, land-locked urban clusters — especially in hotter climates — are contributing an inequitable portion of greenhouse gas emissions, disproportionately inflicting social, economic and environmental harm on small island nations and coastal areas, which contribute less per capita. That includes Delhi.

Delhi is emerging not only as a hub of economic activity and urbanisation — but, also rampant pollution, diseases, and greenhouse gas emissions. In October 2019, air pollution marks had crossed all thresholds and reached a number of 999 — the highest machines can record. Delhi resembled a toxic gas chamber, and pushed the government to take stringent measures to avoid any major catastrophe. The regulators and policymakers have been aware of the pollution conundrum, and have been taking actions for two decades; yet the air pollution levels are only increasing, as air pollution from other states also accumulates.

So what is Delhi doing? First and foremost, major actions have been taken in the transportation sector — now the most significant contributor to GHGs — to make the city’s air breathable. That includes running the largest bus service run by compressed natural gas (CNG) in the world, as well as bulking up the largest and busiest Metro train network in India, and encouraging less-polluting private transport modes, like human-pulled rickshaws, CNG-run autos, and private pool cab services. Aimed at shifting people over to public transportation instead of private vehicles, the modal shares are relatively energy efficient. But even though public transportation in Delhi is robust, the private vehicle ownership has only increased in last two decades to 11.2 million registered vehicle in 2018, and thousands of other visiting Delhi every day, partially offsetting potential reductions from public transportation.

Delhi’s public transportation system is bolstered by regulations for private vehicles, like its “Odd-Even Policy.” This policy only allows even-numbered plated vehicles on roads on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and odd-numbered vehicles on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sunday is generally exempt from the rule. This policy was recently adopted by the Delhi Government in October, due to the massive air pollution build-up in Delhi. The objective of this policy is to promote greener traveling habits amongst people, like taking public transportation, and car-pooling. The transportation sector policies are bringing in positive changes and should serve as a case study in other cities, but a disclaimer: people continue to find loopholes.

Besides transportation, there are more than ten coal-fire power plants in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), most of which are beyond prescribed emissions norms. The central government has announced conversion of retired thermal plants into solar-run plants, under the national Renewable Generation Obligation. Additionally, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s plan to switch its trains over to solar power is in the pipelines. Most of these plans aim at shifting to cleaner energy forms in urban transport, like the CNG-run buses.

In 2018, vertical gardens were installed in Delhi, in order to reduce its dust and pollution. These gardens were claimed to have brought down pollution levels; however, today, these gardens have withered away, due to lack of maintenance. One of the most recent actions in Delhi is the popular “Smog Tower”, that is installed in East Delhi. The tower purifies air in around a radius of 500 to 750 metres of radius. Given its effectiveness, a long-term solution includes an expensive measure to put “smog towers” in Delhi NCR within a huge area.

Yet due to climate change, here’s an inevitable truth: Delhi will see hot days multiple by 22 by the end of the decade. People will be coerced to use more air conditioning and electricity during these hotter days, contributing even further to climate change. While the government intends to take stricter measures in Delhi to decrease not only the contribution of Delhi to climate change (mitigation), but also, the impacts of climate change in Delhi (adaptation), it is vital that Delhi must create a reality where both top-bottom and bottom-up approaches are allowed to achieve a livable city for future generations.

Chhaya Bhardwaj is a United Nations trained international lawyer and a 2019 Local Pathways Fellow. Currently she is teaching environmental law and public international law at various law schools in India.