Delhi, the 1.5° C challenge, and you

With the launch of the landmark United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report ('The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C'), global climate change initiatives now have a newfound urgency. The report has cited 2030 as the final year for establishing a 1.5°C limit to global warming, beyond which hundreds of millions of people may face imminent drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty.  The report has been accompanied by a call for "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”.

This call for action is justifiable; with only a 1°C rise, the world is today experiencing rising sea levels, rapid Arctic sea ice decline, and extreme weather events. In this context, the report urges politicians and policymakers for drastic, aggressive, and immediate global effort, to accelerate the actions needed to limit global warming to 1.5° C.

A Delhi deadline

Delhi, ranked among the most air-polluted cities in the world[1]. launched in 2017 an Air Action Plan that identifies 12 major actionable points and underlined sustained action by state governments and central government ministries. However, to create a sense of urgency in resolving it’s ever-worsening pollution crisis, it is important to also put in place a deadline, with milestones that define how far the city’s pollution mitigation strategy has come.

With a variety of air pollution sources that can make Delhi’s pollution mitigation strategy a case study for not only India and the developing world, the Capital’s response must take on the pieces of the pollution spectrum at once.

One of the Air Action Plan’s most significant interventions will be in transportation, a highly polluting sector. An AT Kearney report[2] has identified that the city’s public transport is not keeping up with India’s booming mobility demand. The fall in usage of Delhi’s bus fleet, once recognised as the world’s cleanest [3]for its use of CNG, is not a good sign for its air quality. Also, of note are the 26 energy-efficiency and renewable measures policy measures mentioned in the Delhi’s government’s annual budget for the next fiscal. To achieve these, Delhi will have to install an effective governance mechanism to ensure timely implementation minus political differences.

The IPCC panel’s demand for swift and unprecedented change needs pollution to become the people’s mandate. As witnessed recently, when thousands of citizen-led initiatives successfully rallied together against government-approved felling of over 16,000 trees for a government housing project, nothing less will make a difference.

A green mandate

For Delhi, and for India, a new green mandate, defined by citizens' concerted and consistent action, will be the only pathway to successfully achieve the 1.5-degree C challenge. Let us be certain of one thing - we should be afraid of where our status-quo on climate will lead us.

Things will not improve if there is no sustained demand for it. There is no time to be wasted on divisive interpretations of policies or the pursuit of short-term vested interests. With a definitive 12-year deadline to achieve this dramatic climate turn-around, no more is 'sustainability' defined by passing on a greener Earth to our children; every citizen must participate to insure his or her future. Public consciousness will not only change the government’s development agenda towards sustainability but also allow for people to make the lifestyle choices needed for the IPCC’s recommended transitions in land, energy, industry, transport and cities. Across NGOs, RWAs, schools, colleges, workplaces, and all other platforms of citizen interest, there must be a common and unanimous green discourse that leads to deliberation and partnerships towards the 1.5° C goal.

No more the domain of placards and NGOs, environment, today is foremost responsibility for every single citizen. The scale of conversation and demand for clean air today will directly define how intervention areas are translated into policies, laws, and enforced in action. And what the future of Delhi would look like.

---Rakesh Thukral, MD, Edelman India

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[1] https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/11/22/16666808/india-air-pollution-new-delhi

[2] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/public-transports-share-of-city-trips-at-all-time-low-and-falling/articleshow/65649614.cms

[3] https://scroll.in/article/807463/delhi-has-relied-on-cng-to-control-its-pollution-in-the-past-but-will-it-work-this-time