NEWSFLASH - Mumbai, Dec. 7, 2009

Mumbai sits in smog as government heads to Copenhagen

By: Aaron Hochman-Zimmerman

The air is think in Mumbai; smog blocks the view across the city's famous Back Bay.

Exhaust fumes, construction, dust and traffic are an accepted part of life here.

"They've developed a tolerance for it," said professor Virendra Sethi, head of the Center for Environmental Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

In Mumbai, "the overall problem is dust," he said, "but that doesn't mean it's toxic."

Still, the scientific community in India is only beginning to organize and discuss the problem.

"What should be the standard for India is still really up in the air," he said.

The government's actions promoting renewable energy and cutting emissions have been positive steps, but the real work needs to involve information sharing and large groups within the scientific community advising the government.

"That hasn't happened yet," he said.

Political forces which favor economic development and fighting poverty push for resources to be funneled into their own causes.

"It's largely an urban issue," Sethi said, the rural areas deal with a separate set of problems.

Also, "there's a cultural problem," he said, in many ways people are not ready to take on large, long-term challenges when the will not see immediate effects on their own lives.

"We've gotten to the point where the tasks are so huge," he said.

Meanwhile, the government prepared to take on the problem at the international level as its delegation arrived in Copenhagen for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

Before the announcement that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would attend, Greenpeace had pushed hard to get him to commit to attend.

"We actually got him a ticket," said Deven Digwal, public engagement campaigner for Greenpeace, Mumbai, "although economy class."

There is always more that can be done, but Greenpeace would be satisfied with the Copenhagen talks if India agrees to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent to 35 percent, Digwal said, as well as incorporate a serious plan for the use of renewable energy.

The government has paid lip service to the problem, but "nothing" has been done, said Ashok Datar, chairman of the Mumbai Environmental Social Network. "It's a lot of words."

In Mumbai, clean air comes in from the Arabian Sea and gets dirty as it passes over the city, he said; "it's getting worse."

Locally, "it's basically a traffic issue," professor Sethi said and a government report agrees.

"Transport ... has been a victim of ignorance, neglect and confusion," according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests' 2009 State of Environment report.

Mumbai's air contains the country's highest content of sulfur dioxide at over 10 micrograms per cubic meter. The number has steadily increased since 2004. The air is also burdened with over 45 micrograms per cubic meter of nitrogen dioxide, second in the country to Kolkata. Levels have increased since 2002.

Mumbai residents also suffer with over 100 micrograms per cubic meter of respirable suspended particulate matter or forms of dust which have increased since 2003, according to the State of Environment report.

There have been some successes. Both particulates and sulfur dioxide levels are lower than samples taken in the mid-1990s.

The Environment and Forests Ministry credits tighter government restrictions on emissions for the improvements.

However, Datar is frustrated that more is not done about the traffic policies in Mumbai.

"I don't want to have more cars in my city," he said, but he understands that owning a car is an aspiration for people living in this rising economic power.

In the last 25 years, cars have increased on the Mumbai streets by 11 percent per year to 700,000; buses have increased at a rate of less than two percent per year to 3,300, he said.

What must be done is to adjust the price of owning a car, he said.

Taxes, registration and parking fees can be used to make owning a car and even loftier aspirations and would help to decongest Mumbai's streets.

Automobiles are cheap and apartments are expensive, he said, even some people living in slums own cars. "It's totally way out of proportion."

On the national level, India's government has been working to reduce its already relatively low environmental impact, compared per capita to the rest of the world.

India produces five percent of the world's carbon dioxide, compared to China's 16 percent and the United States' 22 percent, according to government figures.

For the government, the issues are "coming into the forefront," said Satish Sinha, head of the climate change and energy program of the World Wildlife Fund in New Delhi.

"Our expectations are still very high," he said about the Copenhagen summit.

"What we really need is for some form of legally binding agreement to happen," he said and with broad international cooperation.

The United States and other major players must contribute to the effort, although "the numbers we're hearing from the U.S. are not very encouraging," he said.

The United States has had its economic trouble, but the world needs a "more ambitious roadmap" from the Obama Administration.

"He can certainly to more," Sinha said about President Barack Obama.

Domestically, New Delhi's National Action Plan shows promise, if enacted, he said.

Details of the program can be found at http://moef.nic.in.downloads/home/pg01-52.pdf. The document details some of the governments priorities for the use of solar, wind, more efficient fossil fuels as well as conservation programs.

"Renewable energy is becoming mandatory," Sinha said.

There has also been "interesting" research into the controversial notion of clean coal technology, he said.

India is still developing economically and has to expand its use of energy to serve its people, he said.

"A large section of the population does not have access to basic lighting," he said and "coal would still play a dominant role in India."

The country must use "all practical sources of energy," he said.