Indonesia

‘Green growth’ push lacks focus on air pollution fight, experts say India News


New Delhi: By taking a multi-pronged approach across different sectors to focus on ‘green growth’, the Budget may have sent an overall positive signal on the environment and climate change But it lacks a clear direction to tackle air pollution, though it proposes allocating more funds to the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), which deals with critical issues outside Delhi-NCR.
Regulations on air pollution abatement measures present a mixed picture. Different regulations, including a clean energy push in the power and transport sectors, will help reduce pollutants, but a lack of specific focus on crop residue management or crop diversification will not help address pollution peaks in northwest India. A lack of focus would shift responsibility for crop residue management from central to the states – a proposal that does not seem encouraging.
The Ministry of Environment’s budget is around Rs 30.79 billion, an increase of over 24 per cent compared to the revised estimate for the current year (Rs 24.78 billion), but flat compared to the budget estimate for 2022-23.
“Pollution Control” is partly conceptualized as Pollution Control Board/Committee funding assistance to NCAP, but has been growing steadily – from Rs. 406 crore in 2021-22 to Rs. 7.56 million, an increase of 26% over the previous year.
The money will be used to strengthen the air pollution monitoring systems in the states and take other related measures to conduct year-round monitoring of various pollutants. “Increased funding for NCAP is welcome, but the lack of focus on crop residue management or crop diversification means there is unlikely to be any real improvement in crop residue burning this winter,” said Bhargav Krishna, a researcher at the New Delhi think tank, Center for Policy Research (CPR).





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