India has tightened pollution norms for coal-based power stations

New standards for coal-based plants will cut down emissions of particulate matter by 65 percent, sulphur dioxide (SO₂ ) by 85 percent and nitrogen oxide (NO_x) by 70 percent over the next decade. India, which has the world’s fourth-highest coal-based capacity, revised its pollution control norms in 2015.

The new norms were introduced given a sharp increase in pollution load from the sector with a massive rise in coal-based capacity in the past ten to 15 years. With the deadline to comply with the new norms by December 2017, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) finds very little progress has been made.

The delay has been largely due to the industry’s reluctance to invest in pollution control systems. The industry has cited technology issues, space constraints, increase in power costs, etc. as bottlenecks. However, after two years of serious scrutiny and discussions with industry experts, manufacturers and regulators a consensus has emerged that these issues can be easily managed. CSE finds that the industry has not taken any serious efforts over the last two years to meet the new norms, for instance, basic data on emissions from power stations are still unavailable.

Also, the regulators who were responsible for monitoring the stations failed to do so. There are several learnings from this delay in implementation. Various issues which arose in the forefront like costs, technology suitability, etc. could have been proactively addressed. Most importantly, regulators should have strictly monitored the progress and publically published the emissions data, which would have assisted in timely implementation.