CHENNAI: Chennai’s SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide) emissions from coal plants decreased from 168-kilo tonnes per year in 2018 to 142-kilo tonnes in 2019, reveals a report published by Center for Research on Energy and Clear Air (CREA) and Greenpeace India.
Invisible to the human eye, the SO2 is a toxic gas emitted from the burning of fossil fuels among other products. The poisonous air pollutant increases the risk of health conditions like stroke, heart diseases, asthma, lung cancer and premature death.
According to a report, Chennai is the only major Indian city that features in the top 50 global SO2 emission hotspots. While Chennai ranks 36th among the 50 anthropogenic SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide) emitting hotspots in the globe which uses various sources of energy for combustion, it ranks 18th among the top 50 SO2 hotspots that use just coal as the main source of combustion.
The report, published based on data sourced from NASA's “MEaSUREs” program, which records the emission levels, states that for the first time in four years, India’s (SO2) emissions too recorded a significant decline of approximately by 6% in 2019 compared to 2018. The analysis highlights that the SO2 levels are further decreasing in 2020, probably due to lesser energy demand due to the pandemic. The largest reductions were observed in the coal and smelter sectors.
Even though the SO2 levels have gradually decreased, researchers and analysts say that it is vital for India, a country which emits 21% of global anthropogenic SO2 emissions, to speed up the process to move towards renewable energy and implement stringent emission control norms.
"In 2019, renewable energy capacity expanded, coal dependency decreased and we saw a corresponding improvement in air quality. But our air is still far from safe. We must speed up the energy transition away from coal and towards renewables, for our health and economy," says Avinash Chanchal, Climate Campaigner, Greenpeace India.
"The major reason for SO2 emission is burning fossil fuels in the energy sector. The government must take action," he told TNIE.
Lack of implementation of emission control measures: The report states that most power stations in the country still do not meet the emission control standards set up by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). The MoEF&CC in 2015 directed all the power plants to set up Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD), a technology used to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, which in way reduces the emission levels.
As most power stations did not set up the plant by 2017, the MoEF&CC extended the deadline to 2022. The report finds that majority power plants still have not installed the technology, resulting in high levels of SO2 emissions still. Sunil Dahiya, Analyst, CREA, says SO2 emissions are affecting the health of millions of people directly and worse through converting to PM2.5.
"Every single day delay in implementation of prescribed norms and not installing the FGD system is causing huge health and economic damage to our society. It is time the non-complying power plants are pulled up," he added.