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GS Paper: GS3-18.Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

  • [pib] India’s first Green Energy Convergence Project

    The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is set to roll out of India’s first Energy Convergence Project in Goa.

    Green Energy Convergence Project

    • Under the project, EESL and the Department of New and Renewable Energy (DNRE) in Goa will carry out feasibility studies and implementation of decentralized solar energy projects.
    • The project aims to connect seemingly independent sectors like Solar Energy, Energy Storage and LED lights to provide solutions, which can enable in decarbonisation and affordable energy access.
    • It will include the installation of 100 Megawatt decentralized ground-mounted solar power projects on government land to be used for agricultural pumping.
    • It seeks to replace 6,300 agricultural pumps and distribute 16 lakh LED bulbs for rural domestic households.

    Benefits of the project

    • The projects will accelerate the usage of renewable energy sources, especially for agricultural and rural power consumption in the State.
    • They will also contribute to the reduction of peak energy demand through the deployment of energy-efficient pumping and lighting thus contributing to overall sustainability.

    About EESL

    • A joint venture of NTPC Limited, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and POWERGRID, the EESL was set up under Ministry of Power to facilitate the implementation of energy efficiency projects.
    • EESL is a Super Energy Service Company (ESCO) that seeks to unlock energy efficiency market in India, that can potentially result in energy savings of up to 20 per cent of current consumption.
    • It also acts as the resource centre for capacity building of State DISCOMs, ERCs, SDAs, upcoming ESCOs, financial institutions, etc.

  • India’s challenge in balancing the emissions and economy

    India faces an uphill task of balancing its climate action with the economic growth. Bridging the energy deficit through renewable energy in cost-effective and increasing urban forestry could help in balancing the both.

    Comparing India’s commitment

    • China’s announcement recently to achieve carbon neutrality, that is, effectively generating net-zero emissions, before 2060 has now shifted focus on India’s commitments.
    • In this context,  let us compare India’s commitments with other countries, based on an independent scientific analysis carried out by the Climate Action Tracker. Major findings of it are:-
    • 1) India is one of the only six countries (amongst the 33 that were assessed), and the only G-20 country, whose climate commitments at Paris are on a path compatible to limit warming well below 2°C.
    • 2) It seems that India is well on its way to achieving its carbon intensity reduction and non-fossil-fuel electricity growth capacity commitments well before the 2030 target year.
    • Even though China’s commitment is likely to lower warming projections by around 0.2 to 0.3 degrees C by 2100, China continues to remain in the “highly insufficient” category.
    • India, despite being the fourth-largest emitter, has consistently kept its commitments in sync with its fair share and will achieve, if not over-achieve, these targets.

    Difference in development and growth levels

    • Development and growth in India are still at an early stage, and our first goal remains increasing the availability of adequate infrastructure for all Indians.
    • A measure of this deficit is that we use only about 0.6 tonnes of oil-equivalent worth of energy per person per year while in China it is 2.36 tonnes per person per year, and is at least 4 tonnes per person per year in the OECD countries.
    • It is, therefore, essential that we rapidly bridge the energy deficit.

    Bridging the energy deficit through renewable and cost-effective manner

    • Cost-effectiveness in renewable electricity has occurred rather rapidly, largely as a result of the global reduction in solar PV and battery prices.
    • Solar electricity is already the cheapest electricity available in India when the sun is shining.
    • It now seems that round-the-clock renewable electricity may be cost-competitive with coal electricity in the near future.
    • This cost-effectiveness of zero-carbon options will emerge in other applications as well.
    • It will involve dedicated action in some of the vital sectors which can generate and sustain employment while adding to the country’s economic growth.
    • It will enable a shift away from emissions-intensive fossil fuels, reducing our dependence on fuel imports.

    Urban forestry to compensate for environmental degradation

    • Increasing urban forestry could help compensate for environmental degradation as a result of rapid urbanisation in several Indian cities.
    • This is vital to restore the flow of crucial ecosystem services, including air quality, and increase the resilience of cities to extreme climatic events.
    • As a result, enhancing biodiversity, minimising human-wildlife conflict and restoring India’s pristine forests by developing dedicated wildlife/biodiversity corridors is an essential next step.

    Way ahead

    • At the developmental crossroads that India stands, the next decade is vital for its own economic growth, its climate action, and its social and ecological well-being.
    • With this in mind, India must focus on its domestic developmental prerogative and disengage them from the pressures that come along with international negotiations, focussing on actions that reduce the development deficits, which also provide strong climate benefits.
    • India must initiate a narrative, discussion and dialogue which focuses on each country taking on commitments that move their carbon trajectory towards the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C.

    Consider the question “Development and growth in India still at an early stage which makes the challenge of balancing the commitment to climate action with economic developement more difficult. In light of this, suggest the strategy that India should follow.”

    Conclusion

    India, being at the crossroads of development needs to balance the development goals with its commitment towards climate action.

  • Vulture Action Plan for 2020-25

    Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change has launched a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25 for the conservation of vultures in the country.

    Vulture Action Plan

    • While the ministry has been carrying out a conservation project for vultures since 2006, the plan is to now extend the project to 2025 to not just halt the decline but to actively increase the vulture numbers in India.
    • There are nine recorded species of vultures in India — the Oriental white-backed, long-billed, slender-billed, Himalayan, red-headed, Egyptian, bearded, cinereous and the Eurasian Griffon.
    • Vulture numbers saw a steep slide — as much as 90 per cent in some species — in India since the 1990s in one of the most drastic declines in bird populations in the world.

    Decline in Populations

    • Between the 1990s and 2007, numbers of three presently critically-endangered species – the Oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures — crashed massively with 99 per cent of the species having been wiped out.
    • The number of red-headed vultures, also critically-endangered now, declined by 91% while the Egyptian vultures by 80%.
    • The Egyptian vulture is listed as ‘endangered’ while the Himalayan, bearded and cinereous vultures are ‘near threatened’.

    Why protect vultures?

    • Vultures are often overlooked and perceived as lowly scavengers, but they play a crucial role in the environments in which they live.
    • The scavenging lifestyle that gives them a bad reputation is, in fact, that makes them so important for the environment, nature and society.
    • Vultures, also known as nature’s cleanup crew, do the dirty work of cleaning up after death, helping to keep ecosystems healthy as they act as natural carcass recyclers.

    Various threats

    • The crash in vulture populations came into limelight in the mid-90s, and in 2004.
    • The cause of the crash was established as diclofenac — a veterinary nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to treat pain and inflammatory diseases such as gout — in carcasses that vultures would feed off.
    • Just 0.4-0.7 per cent of animal carcasses contaminated with diclofenac was sufficient to decimate 99 per cent of vulture populations.

    Various initiatives

    • The MoEFCC released the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation 2006 with the drugs controller banning the veterinary use of diclofenac in the same year and the decline of the vulture population being arrested by 2011.
    • The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) also established the Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme.
    • It has been successful and had three critically-endangered species bred in captivity for the first time.
    • The ministry has now also launched conservation plans for the red-headed and Egyptian vultures, with breeding programmes for both.
    • The Vulture Safe Zone programme is being implemented at eight different places in the country where there were extant populations of vultures, including two in Uttar Pradesh.

  • Lonar Lake, Sur Sarovar declared as Ramsar sites

    The Lonar Lake in Maharashtra and Sur Sarovar, also known as Keetham lake, in Agra, have been added to the list of recognised Ramsar sites.

    Make a note of all freshwater and saltwater lakes in India.

    Lonar Lake

    • Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument, saline (pH of 10.5), Soda Lake, located at Lonar in Buldhana district, Maharashtra.
    • It was created by an asteroid collision with earth impact during the Pleistocene Epoch.
    • It is one of the four known, hyper-velocity, impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth.
    • It sits inside the Deccan Plateau—a massive plain of volcanic basalt rock created by eruptions some 65 million years ago.

    Sur Sarovar

    • It is a scenic lake just outside Agra on the Agra – Delhi highway (NH 2) and a declared bird sanctuary.
    • The riverine belt of River Yamuna surrounds the area of Sur-Sarovar.
    • It is today home to more than 165 species of migratory and resident birds.
    • It is the same place that inspired the famed poet Soordas to compose the “Bhakti Kavya” one of the finest pieces of devotional poetry.

    Two amongst many

    • India now has 41 wetlands, the highest in South Asia, with two more added to the list of recognised sites of international importance under the treaty of Ramsar Convention.
    • Recently, Kabartal in Bihar’s Begusarai district was recognised as a wetland of international importance, the first such wetland in the State, under the Ramsar Convention.
    • The Asan Conservation Reserve in Dehradun, the first wetland from Uttarakhand to be recognised by Ramsar convention, was added to the list in October this year.

    Back2Basics: Wetlands

    • A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail.
    • The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other landforms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil.
    • Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.

    What is the Ramsar Convention?

    • The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is a treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of such sites.
    • The convention, signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accords for preserving the ecological character of wetlands.
    • Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it aims to develop a global network of wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and for sustaining human life.
    • Over 170 countries are party to the Ramsar Convention and over 2,000 designated sites covering over 20 crore hectares have been recognised under it.

  • Air pollution in India

    Despite efforts from several levels, air pollution is getting worse day by day. The article suggests the strategy to deal with the issue of air pollution.

    Solvable problem

    • Pollution is very much a solvable problem but it cannot be solved on an emergency basis.
    • It has to be dealt with firmly and gradually.
    • Why gradually? Because there are many sources of pollution and it would be prohibitively costly to stop them or even significantly reduce them all at once.

    Replacing existing technologies with existing technology

    • The biggest sources air polltion nationally are cooking fires, coal-fired power plants, various industries, crop residue burning, and construction and road dust. Vehicles are further down on the list.
    • Dealing with all these sources will require a gradual replacement of existing technologies with new technologies.
    • Cooking fires must be replaced with LPG, induction stoves, and other electric cooking appliances.
    • Old coal power plants must be closed and replaced with wind and solar power and batteries while newer plants must install new pollution control equipment.
    • No new coal-fired power plants should be built — with renewables being cheaper, coal is obsolete for power generation.
    • Other industries that use coal will have to gradually switch over to cleaner fuel sources such as gas or hydrogen while becoming more energy-efficient at the same time.
    • Farmers will have to switch crops or adopt alternative methods of residue management.
    • Diesel and petrol vehicles must gradually be replaced by electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles running on power generated from renewables.

    Legal measures and issues

    • Governments can make clean investments more profitable and dirty investments less profitable by taxing polluting activities and subsidising clean investments.
    • The judiciary is more powerful but has far less scientific and technical competence.
    • It tends to act only during crises and focus on past mistakes rather than planning to prevent new ones.

    Reforms in regulatory agency

    • Our existing laws do not allow the central and state pollution boards to levy pollution fee or cess based on pollution emissions.
    • Since closing down an industry is a drastic step, it almost never happens.
    • We need a regulatory agency that can levy pollution fee or cess, is that the regulatory decision need not be an all-or-nothing decision.
    • Pollution fees can start small, and the EPA can announce that they will rise by a certain percentage every year.
    • The regulatory agency should be given some independence,like
    • 1) a head appointed for a five-year term removable only by impeachment.
    • 2) a guaranteed budget funded by a small percentage tax on all industries.
    • 3) autonomy to hire staff and to set pollution fees after justification through scientific studies.
    • Three advantages of the regulator with such powers would be-
    • 1) Politicians in power can pass on the blame for decisions on pollution fees to the EPA.
    • 2) Pollution fees raise revenue for the government.
    • 3) If the law establishing an independent EPA is written to require that changes to pollution fees and regulations must be published in advance, and cannot involve abrupt changes, then surprises are avoided.
    • Industry opposition will be muted, especially if industry gets a piece of the revenue to invest in new technologies.

    Conclusion

    Our pollution problem has taken decades to grow into the monster that it is. It can’t be killed in a day. We need the scientific and technical capacity that only a securely funded independent EPA can bring to shrink pollution down to nothing.

  • Places in news: Tristan da Cunha

    The isolated UK Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote human settlement, has been declared the largest fully protected marine reserves in the Atlantic Ocean at 687,000 square kilometres.

    Note the location of Tristan da Cunha Islands in the Atlantic.

    Tristan da Cunha

    • Tristan da Cunha, which is inhabited by less than 300 humans is a small chain of islands over 6,000 miles from London in the South Atlantic and the water around the islands are considered to be the richest in the world.
    • The mountainous archipelago is home to tens of millions of seabirds and several unique land birds that are comparable to the Galapagos island finches.
    • The island group is also home to the World Heritage Site of Gough and Inaccessible Islands, which is one of the most important seabird islands in the world.

    Significance of protection

    • After joining the UK’s Blue Belt Programme, it will become the largest no-take zone in the Atlantic and the fourth largest on the planet.
    • This will close over 90 per cent of their waters to harmful activities such as bottom-trawling fishing, sand extraction and deep-sea mining.
    • The almost 700,000 square kilometres of the Marine Protection Zone (MPZ) is almost three times the size of the UK and will safeguard the future of sevengill sharks, Yellow-nosed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins.
    • MPZs involve the management of certain natural areas for biodiversity conservation or species protection and are created by delineating zones with permitted and non-permitted areas within that zone.

  • Species in news: Rohanixalus -the frogs of the new genus

    Indian researchers have discovered a genus of tree frog found in the Andaman Islands and the northeast.

    A stand-alone species being mentioned in the news for the first time find their way into the prelims. Make special note here. Usually, note the species and its habitat location (IUCN status if available), in the purview of a generic prelims question.

    Genus Rohanixalus

    • Named after Sri Lankan taxonomist Rohan Pethiyagoda, the frogs of the new genus Rohanixalus are characterised by a rather small and slender body (size about 2 to 3 cm long).
    • It has a pair of contrastingly coloured lateral lines on either side of the body, minute brown speckles scattered throughout the upper body surfaces, and light green coloured eggs laid in arboreal bubble-nests.
    • Based on DNA studies, the new genus is also revealed to be a distinct evolutionary lineage from all previously known tree frog genera.
    • It is the 20th recognised genus of the family Rhacophoridae that comprises 422 known Old World tree frog species found in Asia and Africa.

    Sub-species of this frog

    • There are eight frog species in this genus Rohanixalus.
    • They are known to inhabit forested as well as human-dominated landscapes right from the northeast to Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, up to southern China.

    Unique features of this genus

    • The genus has several unique behavioural traits including maternal egg attendance where the female (mother) attends the egg clutches until hatching and assists in the release of the tadpoles into the water.
    • During the first three days after egg-laying, the female sits over the eggs and produces a gelatinous secretion with which she glazes the egg mass through the clock-wise movement of her legs.
    • This behaviour provides necessary moisture to the eggs laid on exposed leaf surfaces and protects them from insect predation.

  • State Pollution Control Boards

    The article deals with the issues faced by the State Pollution Control Boards.

    Role of CPCB and State Pollution Control Boards

    • The pollution crisis is a highly complex, multi-disciplinary issue with several contributory factors.
    • To address this crisis, India has a plethora of rules, laws and specialised agencies which, at least on paper, seem very impressive.
    • The footsoldiers of India’s battle against polluters are its officials at the state pollution control boards.
    • The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) based in Delhi is generally well funded and resourced, unlike the state pollution control boards (SPCBs) that are in charge of implementation of the rules that CPCB writes.

    5 issues faced by SPCBs

    1) Shortage of Staff

    • As an illustration, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has been operating with a 70 per cent staff shortage.
    • What this means practically is that a single officer is tasked to handle the demands of pollution control for an entire district without any subordinate technical staff.
    • This comes at the cost of not being able to do inspections and other core pollution control work.

    2) Lack of specialisation

    • The officers at the SPCBs do not get to develop any specialisation.
    • The CPCB has a decent workforce and robust laboratories, where scientists once recruited get to work and excel in a particular area.
    • On the other hand, SPCBs don’t have such a stratified system, and the same officer is in charge of all these pollution categories, making it impossible to gain expertise and excel in any one area.

    3) Lack of legal skills to take on pollutors

    •  SPCBs lack the necessary legal skills to take on polluters.
    • While a legal cell may exist at the head office of a SPCB, they have few full-time public prosecutors there.
    • As a result, engineering graduates in district SPCB offices —  have to play the role of lawyers and develop legal paperwork that often falls short of holding polluters to account.
    • Clerks and superintendents at courts often refuse to file cases, pointing at flaws that someone not trained in law would naturally make.

    4) Lack of funds

    • SPCBs are chronically underfunded.
    • For instance, the funds of several SPCBs such as Haryana’s largely come from “No Objection Certificates” and “Consent to Operate” that the boards grant to industries and projects, rather than budgetary allocations by the government.
    • Owing to this, SPCB officials are unable to spend on critical functions.

    5) Additional duties

    • SPCB officials are at times given additional responsibilities that are unrelated to pollution control.
    • Haryana’s SPCB, for instance, has poultry farms under its ambit.

    Consider the question “Dealing with the crisis of air pollution need coordination at various levels and the State Pollution Control Boards play an important role in it. In light of this, examine the challenges and suggest the steps needed to empower them.”

    Conclusion

    India must empower SPCBs to act by giving them the necessary funds, human resources, tools and technologies.

  • The cost of cleaning air

    The article deals with the issue of allocation of funds to tackle air pollution and issues with it.

    Allocation in the budget

    • A ₹4,400 crore package was announced in last budget for 2020-21 to tackle air pollution in 102 of India’s most polluted cities.
    • The funds would be used to reduce particulate matter by 20%-30% from 2017 levels by 2024 under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

    Issues with estimating the scale of the problem

    • It is unclear if this amount is adequate because the scale of the problem is unknown.
    • Delhi government spent money on the measurement of pollution for in Delhi that far exceeds s allocations that find mention in the Centre and State government’s budgeting books.
    • The funds allocated don’t account for the trained manpower and the support system necessary to effectively maintain the systems and these costs are likely to be significant.
    • Historically, cites have used manual machines to measure specified pollutants and their use has been inadequate.
    • An analysis by research agencies Carbon Copy and Respirer Living Sciences recently found that only 59 out of 122 cities had PM 2.5 data available.
    • Only three States, had all their installed monitors providing readings from 2016 to 2018.
    • Prior to 2016, making comparisons of reduction strictly incomparable.
    • Now manual machines are being replaced by automatic ones and India is still largely reliant on imported machines.
    • In the case of the National Capital Region, at least ₹600 crore was spent by the Ministry of Agriculture over two years to provide subsidised equipment to farmers in Punjab and Haryana and dissuade them from burning paddy straw.
    • Yet this year, there have been more farm fires than the previous year and their contribution to Delhi’s winter air woes remain unchanged.
    • This indicates that money alone doesn’t work.

    Conclusion

    A clear day continues to remain largely at the mercy of favourable meteorology. While funds are critical, proper enforcement, adequate staff and stemming the sources of pollution on the ground are vital to the NCAP meeting its target.

  • Green Hydrogen based vehicular fuel

    Transport sector has been a major contributor of Green House Gases in India. Moving towards cleaner fuels brings to fore two options battery-operated electric vehicle (EV) and hydrogen fuel cell EV. The article compares the two.

    Vehicular emission and steps taken to deal  with it

    • The transport sector in India contributes one-third of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, within which the lion’s share is that of road transport.
    • The government has made concerted efforts to tackle vehicular emissions with policies steps and programmes such as the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME I) scheme, FAME II, tax benefits, etc.

    Blending hydrogen

    • Typically, hydrogen can be produced in one of three ways, i.e., from fossil fuels (grey hydrogen), through carbon capture utilisation & storage (CCUS) application and fossil fuels (blue hydrogen), or by using renewable energy (green hydrogen). 
    • Indian Oil Corporation Limited has patented a technology that produces H-CNG (18% hydrogen in CNG) directly from natural gas, without having to undertake expensive conventional blending.
    • This compact blending process provides a 22% reduction in cost as compared to conventional blending.
    • In comparison to CNG, H-CNG allows for a 70% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions and a 25% reduction in hydrocarbon emissions.
    • The new H-CNG technology requires only minor tweaks in the current design of CNG buses.
    • However, the issue is that the  Hydrogen-spiked CNG is still being produced from natural gas-a fossil fuel.

    Electric vehicle Vs. Fuel cell

    • From a commercial viability standpoint, two cleaner fuel alternatives come to mind—battery-operated electric vehicles (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).
    • Hydrogen FCEVs has reduced refuelling time (5 minutes versus 30-40 minutes with fast charges), higher energy density, longer range, etc.
    • However, one needs to focus on is the entire life cycle of these vehicles as opposed to restricting the analysis to just the carbon-free tailpipe emissions.
    • According to a report by Deloitte (2020) on hydrogen and fuel cells, the lifecycle GHG emissions from hydrogen FCEVs ranges between 130-230 g CO2e per km.
    • The lower end of the range depicts the case of hydrogen production from renewables while the higher end reflects the case of hydrogen production from natural gas.
    • The corresponding life cycles GHG emissions for BEV and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles range between 160-250 g CO2e and 180-270 g CO2e respectively.
    • The cost of lithium ion-based battery-operated vehicles has been reducing while hydrogen fuel cell technology is relatively quite expensive.
    • A hydrogen-run vehicle achieves an energy efficiency rate of 25-35% (roughly 45% of energy is lost during the electrolysis process alone).

    Way forward

    • Given that these are early days for FCEV, one can be hopeful that we will be able to achieve economies of scale and attain cost reductions.
    • Hydrogen Council (2020) on hydrogen cost competitiveness that states scaling up and augmenting fuel cell production from 10,000 to 200,000 units can deliver a 45% reduction in the cost per unit.
    • Similarly, the versatility of hydrogen allows for complementarity across its numerous applications.
    • Moreover, based on the numbers quoted by this report, fuel cell stacks for passenger vehicles are expected to exhibit learning rates of 17% in the coming future.
    • The corresponding figures for commercial vehicles stand at 11%.
    • Efforts are underway in India, and the research activities pertaining to hydrogen have been compiled and recently released in the form of a country status report.
    • In their quest for becoming carbon neutral by 2035, Reliance Industries plan to replace transportation fuels with hydrogen and clean electricity.
    • Similarly, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is considering setting up a green hydrogen production facility in Andhra Pradesh.
    • The ministry of road transport and highways issued a notification proposing amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (1989) to incorporate safety standards for hydrogen fuel cell technology vehicles.
    • As per a policy brief issued by TERI, demand for hydrogen in India is expected to increase 3-10 fold by 2050.

    Consider the question “What are the benefits and challenges in the adoption of hydrogen as vehicular fuel?”

    Conclusion

    Against this backdrop, the future of hydrogen, particularly green hydrogen, looks promising in India.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/fuelling-a-green-future/2121991/