[sustran] fwd CSE - Indian air pollution updates

SUSTRAN Resource Centre sustran at po.jaring.my
Mon Nov 8 15:49:10 JST 1999


From: "webadmin" <webadmin at cseindia.org>
Organization: Center For Science and Environment
To: <CSE-LIST at cse.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 15:01:11 +0530
Subject: What's new at CSE


What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment, New 
Delhi, India

....

POLLUTED AND IGNORED

Talk about air pollution in India and everybody thinks of 
the four metropolitan cities. But the ambient air quality 
in even smaller cities and towns is deteriorating 
alarmingly and in some cases it is much worse. In Lucknow, 
for example, the maximum level of suspended particulate 
matter (SPM) in 1997 matched the highest levels recorded in 
Delhi. And if one person dies prematurely every hour in 
Delhi due to high SPM levels, the death count in Lucknow 
can well be imagined. The main reason for this is a sharp 
rise in polluting motor vehicles and mismanagement of 
public transport. Rogue industrial units also play a hand. 
Although data on rising levels of air pollution is 
available, there are no programmes in any of these cities 
to counter the emerging public health disaster. How many 
will die before India has an effective national air quality 
management plan?

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte991031/dte_analy.htm
-------------------------------------------------
.....

A message from our Director, Anil Agarwal:

Breathing in WTO's world

With the world becoming a global village, there are several 
problems that will require a sound understanding of the 
ever-changing dynamics of global trade and its impact on 
the environment. One such issue is the dumping of old, 
rejected cars from the developed world into the markets of 
developing countries, where the growing middle class is all 
willing to snap them up.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has 
warned that the import of second-hand cars will pose a 
threat to domestic industry and has asked the government to 
levy a 100 per cent tax on these imports. It reports that 
in countries such as Japan, government regulations like 
high annual car registration charges and depreciation norms 
make it almost impossible to own cars more than six years 
old. As a result, prices of second-hands are low and these 
cars flood other countries, destroying their domestic car 
industry. 

For once, I agree with SIAM. Second-hand car import could 
be deadly. But I do not agree with SIAM's single-minded 
perspective that the answer lies in raising import duties. 
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations, which India 
has accepted, provide that countries cannot discriminate 
against foreign  goods. This could be seen as 'arbitrary' 
and 'unfair'. The government might not be able to impose 
higher custom duties, but it can ensure that this 
"flooding" of the Indian market with cheaper, more 
polluting cars will not have serious repercussions on the 
growing problem of air pollution in cities. This can be 
done through domestic norms and regulations. WTO allows 
governments to adopt domestic regulations, standards and 
emission norms for the protection of the environment and 
the health and safety of its people, as long as these norms 
are used to regulate both domestic and foreign producers 
without discrimination.

The import of old cars could seriously impact the 
environment. Firstly, it is important to note that under 
current emission norms, only Delhi is to implement EURO I 
norms and will move to EURO II in April 2000. Recently, the 
Mumbai High Court also ordered similar norms. These states 
can refuse to register cars that do not meet these norms. 
But the rest of urban India - also reeling under smog and 
disease - is still scheduled to go in for EURO I norms in 
2000 and EURO II in 2005.

This means that as of today, India cannot stop imports of 
non-EURO I compliant technology, which became obsolete in 
Europe in 1996, and it cannot stop non-EURO II compliant 
technology till 2005, which will become obsolete in Europe 
in 2000. Unless India upgrades its emission norms urgently 
and makes all of India EURO II compliant by 2000, India can 
become the world's biggest dumpyard of obsolete and 
polluting technology. 

Even Delhi and Mumbai, with their slight advantage, could 
be taken for a ride. We do not have a system of ensuring 
that vehicles meet emission norms after they have passed 
the emissions check at the factory gate. Manufacturers do 
not provide a warranty for the emissions over the life of 
the vehicle. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the 
imported cars - even if they once technologically matched 
EURO I or EURO II norms - have not deteriorated 
substantially over the years, as do most cars.

Given India's past record in pollution under control 
certificates, I would not suggest that any government 
agency waste money and the public's time and patience to 
check the tailpipes of foreign cars. It would be more 
important to put into place a domestic emissions warranty 
system so that buyers of second-hand foreign cars can also 
insist on such a warranty. And the government should be 
able to prevent the import of vehicles without such 
warranties. 

Thirdly, India does not have a taxation system that would 
ensure that old cars are phased out. This lacuna could 
easily make the deadly import of second-hand cars even more 
persistent as it basically means that once such a vehicle 
enters an Indian city, it will stay and pollute for life. 
SIAM's report itself points out that the reason second-hand 
cars are cheaper in Japan and have no market there is 
because of its taxation policy, which makes driving an old 
car prohibitively expensive. Many other countries, 
concerned about the deterioration factor in older vehicles, 
which makes them more polluting, have similar policies. But 
our system is built on a one-time road tax that has no 
relationship with the worthiness of the vehicle.

In the post-WTO world, the old ways of state protection are 
gone. In this new situation, we will need excellent 
policies of regulation and stringent standards to protect 
Indian citizens. Indian car exporters know only too well 
how they are forced to deal with the standards of the 
industrialised world set for the health and safety needs of 
their people, otherwise they cannot hope to even think of 
their markets. Now, Indian car manufacturers may have to 
protect their own life and limb  here in India - that is, 
their profits and investments - by working with the 
interests of their consumers and the environment. But it 
seems that SIAM is yet to receive the message. It is indeed 
ironic that the only thing that can save India's automobile 
industry is high environmental standards - something it has 
been fighting hard till now. 

- Anil Agarwal 

Visit our website at www.cseindia.org or  
www.oneworld.org/cse and check out what's new. Our website 
carries our science and environment fortnightly Down To 
Earth, a weekly Feature Service of articles on environment  
and a daily environment newsflash by subject categories. We 
also give regular updates on all of our campaigns on topics 
like vehicular pollution, climate change, biodiversity, 
water resources, wildlife, forests etc. Our online library 
of books, journals, images and videos is searchable through 
a thesaurus of environmental keywords at 
http://data.cseindia.org  

We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other 
websites in this area. Let us know your website address and 
we would be happy to link to you. Please feel free to 
forward this message to other interested individuals. 
  
*************************************************

Usha Sekhar                   
Website Unit                    
Centre for Science and Environment                    


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