India biggest emitter of sulphur dioxide: report using NASA data

GS-III: India biggest emitter of sulphur dioxide: report using NASA data

Context

India largest emitter of sulfur

A new report by Greenpeace India shows the country is the largest emitter of sulphur dioxide in the world, with more than 15% of all the anthropogenic sulphur dioxide hotspots.
This was detected by the NASA OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite.
Almost all of these emissions in India are because of coal burning, the report says.
The Singrauli, Neyveli, Talcher, Jharsuguda, Korba, Kutch, Chennai, Ramagundam, Chandrapur and Koradi thermal power plants or clusters are the major emission hotspots in India.

Why India?

The vast majority of coal-based power plants in India lack flue-gas desulphurization technology to reduce air pollution.
In a first step to combat pollution levels, the MoEFCC introduced, for the first time, sulphur dioxide emission limits for coal-fired power plants in December 2015.
But the deadline for the installation of flue-gas desulphurization (FGD) in power plants has been extended from 2017 to 2022.

NASA data

The report also includes NASA data on the largest point sources of sulphur dioxide.
The largest sulphur dioxide emission hotspots have been found in Russia, South Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Serbia.
Air pollutant emissions from power plants and other industries continue to increase in India, Saudi Arabia and Iran, the report says.
In Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Turkey, emissions are currently not increasing — however, there is not a lot of progress in tackling them either.

India is the loser

Of the world’s major emitters, China and the United States have been able to reduce emissions rapidly.
They have achieved this feat by switching to clean energy sources.
China, in particular, has achieved success by dramatically improving emission standards and enforcement of sulphur dioxide control.

Source: Indian Express

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