Red alert on the green index

Red alert on the green index

Context

India’s poor ranking in the Environmental Performance Index should force a policy appraisal

India’s poor ranking in the Environmental Performance Index should force a policy appraisal

Reports, late last year, on India’s improved ranking in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Index (from 130 to 100) have been cause for much celebration. As a follow-up to this, the government announced additional reform measures to further improve the ranking

Low green score

However, coinciding with this is the news that out of the 180 countries assessed, India ranks low in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2018, slipping from rank 141 in 2016, to 177 in 2018.

Produced by: The EPI is produced jointly by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum

Other countries: In comparison, emerging peer economies, Brazil and China, rank 69 and 120, respectively.

Cause of Concern

The EPI ranks countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories. No index is perfect. But if an improvement in an index for ease of doing business is cause for celebration, then, equally, a drop in an index ranking environmental performance should be cause for concern and used as a context to examine our policy measures.

Ambitious targets for environmental protection

A look at recent initiatives shows that the government has set ambitious targets for environmental protection.

New coal-fired power plants: In December 2015, it notified new, strict environmental standards for coal-fired power plants, to be effective from January 2018.

Bharat Stage VI norms: An aggressive target was set to implement Bharat Stage VI emission norms from April 1, 2020, skipping Stage V norms.

Only Electric vehicles by 2030: In 2017, the Minister of State for Power and Renewable Energy said that a road map was being prepared so that only electric vehicles would be produced and sold in the country by 2030.

National Solar Mission revised targets: In order to accelerate the transition to renewable sources of power, the government, under the National Solar Mission, revised the target for setting up solar capacity from 20 GW to 100 GW by 2021-22.

Clean up of Ganga by 2018: The Centre has also assured the Supreme Court of India that the highly polluted Ganga will be cleaned up by 2018.

The Question

What are we missing then?

Gap between policy and action

Unfortunately, there appears to be a big gap between policy goals and action.

Examples

Implementing strict power plant emission norm delayed

The government has gone back on its promise of implementing strict power plant emission norms by December 2017, and may even dilute the norms.

EV target by 2047 only

The automobile industry has categorically stated that based on current estimates, full conversion to electric vehicles is realistically possible only by 2047.

Annual electronic waste collection target

After setting electronics manufacturers a reasonable annual electronic waste collection target of 30% of the products sold in the market, the figure has now been relaxed to 10%

SC reprimanded the govt on Clean Up Ganga funds allocation

And late last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in a report, pulled up the government for not developing an action plan and for its poor utilisation of allocated funds in the clean-up of the Ganga. The list can go on.

Ignoring environmental degradation?

Should we ignore environmental degradation as being just a cost of development?

It turns out that the costs are pretty high.

Costs of ignoring the environment

A recent study by the World Bank and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, U.S., showed air pollution to be the cause of an estimated 1.4 million premature deaths in India, which translated into a welfare loss equivalent around 8% of India’s GDP in 2013

Poor are affected

A significant concern is also the fact that the poor are affected disproportionately because of environmental degradation.

Solutions

Pricing the fuels correctly: Rapid transition to solar energy can be accomplished not only by enabling subsidies but also by pricing the more polluting fuels correctly.

Implementation of the strict coal standards: The strict environmental standards for coal plants are expected to do precisely that — the price we pay for coal-based electricity reflect, at least partially, the true costs of producing such electricity

The failure to implement these standards would be a step backwards.

Smoother transition to EVs: Similarly, the transition to electric vehicle use would be aided by pricing petrol and diesel, and perhaps the vehicles that use these fuels, to reflect their external costs to society.

Lack of political will too

• It is of course not the case that the current environmental mess we are in is entirely because of our recent environmental policy failures
• It is linked also to the lack of political will to implement even existing environmental laws and regulations.

Conclusion

It is not possible to restore environmental quality overnight. However, we must ensure that we are moving forwards, not backwards, in meeting our environmental targets. Being among the four worst countries in the world in terms of environmental performance should hopefully serve as a wake-up call.