India has yet again deferred norms that seek to curb toxic emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants, the biggest source of air pollution.
The timeline to meet norms around cutting sulphur dioxide emissions has been extended by another two years, the environment ministry said in a notification on Monday. This is the third such extension since the rules were first notified in 2015 as power plants failed to comply.
Thermal power plants that are due to retire by Dec. 31, 2027, are no longer required to comply by the norms. They have to seek an exemption instead. Projects operating beyond that timeframe will now have to comply by Dec. 31, 2026. The deadline for plants around Delhi-NCR regions and other critically polluted cities is a year sooner.
Indians living in cities continue to breathe the world's most toxic air. Each year, almost 1 lakh Indians die prematurely due to air pollution. Thermal power plants, responsible for over half of the sulphur dioxide pollution in the country, continue to get more time.
Despite the rules having been first notified seven years ago, only 4% of India's power plant capacity has installed flue-gas desulphurisation technologies to cut emissions. As of August 2022, just 8.3 gigawatt of India's 211.6 gigawatt capacity had FGD installations. Plants with 85.7 GW capacity have been awarded bids for installation.
"The emissions norms were put in place, recognising the coal-based power plants as a major factor contributing to air pollution and resulting mortality, and these extensions in implementation show that the interests of polluters prevail more than public health in India, and that needs to stop immediately," said Sunil Dahiya, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Dahiya said there are "sustained efforts" towards diluting or completely doing away with the norms by power plants. He pointed towards other exemptions that have been given from the original 2015 notification that had also set limits for nitrogen oxide emissions and water consumption.
In June 2018, the government increased the water consumption limits for new power plants, commissioned after 2017, to 3 cubic metres per megawatt, up from 2.5 earlier. Later in 2020, it also increased the nitrogen oxide emission limit to 450 milligram per normal cubic metre, from 300 mg earlier.
Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer and the founder of Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, said the fact that another extension was given makes it clear that these norms will never be implemented.
"It is clear that India's National Clean Air Programme target of a reduction of air pollution by 2024 by 30-40% will never be achieved given the repeated leeway the government is giving to violators," he said in a written statement.
"With this extension, a clear message has gone from the Central Government to all power companies that they should not take environmental norms seriously," he said.
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