NEW DELHI, JANUARY 8, 2002: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is deeply disappointed that the interim report of the committee on auto fuel policy headed by the CSIR chief R A Mashelkar has played into the hands of polluters. The report, which lays down a road map for automobile fuel standards, is so weak and uncaring about public health objectives that it virtually denies millions of urban Indians the right to clean air. According to the committee, "clean" fuel (meeting Euro II norms) that is currently being supplied to Delhi – and has had little impact on its overall air quality, will be supplied to the rest of the country only in 2005. People of Delhi have been given no option but to die a slow death as nothing new is proposed for them.

The Committee’s road map even dilutes the recommendations of:

• The Inter-Ministerial Task Force on fuel quality and vehicular emission specifications, which submitted its report to the government in March 2001. The task force report had mentioned that, by 2005, the preferred option would be to achieve Euro IV standards, but the "next best option would be to achieve Euro III norms with 50 ppm sulphur diesel in six major cities" by 2005.

• The road map of the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) presented in 2000, commits industry to meet Euro III and Euro IV emissions standards in 2004 and 2007 respectively and Euro IV for commercial vehicles in 2008. Mashelkar wants industry to relax and keep polluting.

"It is no wonder that the first people to applaud the Mashelkar report were the transporters’ lobby and the minister for petroleum and natural gas" says Sunita Narain, director Centre for Science and Environment addressing a press conference today. Narain added, "It is shocking that the committee’s recommendations, supposedly taking into account public health, are even weaker than the automobile industry’s own road map, even though the industry only has profit in mind."

CSE believes that the desperate and shameless rush with which the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ram Naik, has not only accepted the committee’s interim report as final but has decided to take it to the Cabinet for approval, shows that the committee was set up with a single point objective: to undermine the Supreme Court initiative aimed at bringing in clean technology to advance norms and protect public health in Delhi. The committee has literally played in the hands of the government and the petroleum industry to scuttle the move to phase in CNG in the capital under the pretext that only emissions standards need to be prescribed instead of technology. Give consumer a choice of technology, that’s all it says, but certainly not the right to clean air.

While condemning the report Anumita Roychowdhury Coordinator of CSE’s Right to Clean Air Campaign said "Dr Mashelkar has failed the people of Delhi by not giving us a bold road map to clean fuel and automobile emission standards. The purpose is to meet air quality standards and there is nothing in the report to suggest how these recommendations are going to help to even inch towards cleaning up the air. His road map will not even begin to make any difference to the air quality in Delhi as it simply says that we will have to accept the fuel, which is currently being used in Delhi. And worse, it will even destroy the small gains made so far -- arresting of the run away pollution since 1998. This year winter pollution is much worse because we have failed to implement the CNG order."

Narain is incensed at the way Dr Mashelkar has given Ram Naik and the Delhi transport minister Ajay Maken a reason to rejoice by legitimising that nothing more needs to be done in Delhi for a long time as it has already implemented Euro II emissions standards. Mashelkar ignores that the Euro II emissions standards are in force in Delhi because of the stick from the Supreme Court. Apart from a few dismissive lines on the civil society’s demand for a leapfrogging strategy, he has no stated plan to make it happen.

It is therefore grossly inappropriate for him to even suggest at this time that, "the government should decide only the vehicular emissions standard and the corresponding fuel specifications without specifying vehicle technology and the fuel type." What else has the government been doing since 1991, with absolutely no impact? It is because the civil society has had no confidence in the official norm setting process to either push technology or to meet air quality targets the Supreme Court in Delhi have had to intervene. The Supreme Court has already had to advance the emission norms prescribed by the government by over five years. It became necessary to stipulate clean technology such as CNG to overcome the limitation that diesel technology posed to achieving emissions levels beyond the weak norms in force. CNG vehicles meet Euro IV norms in terms of particulate emissions giving people of Delhi a tremendous advantage over what Mashelkar committee has recommended.

Despite noting at the outset that "public health is a prime concern", the report offers nothing to address this concern. Even in 2005 diesel will have sulphur content as high as 350 ppm with no cap on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) that makes diesel fume such a strong carcinogen. Petrol will be rich in aromatic content that is extremely toxic. Indiscriminate use of unsafe oxygenates like MTBE will continue.

"It is a farce to even talk about letting emissions standards govern when we do not even have a legally enforceable system to ensure compliance with the regional air quality targets," says Narain. She cites the recent case in Maryland, USA, where federal grants were cut as the state had failed to meet the air quality target. In the US, the federal clean air act specifies that if regional air quality targets are not met, the states can lose federal highway funds. Monetary penalties and fear of court action keep the states in line. "It is meaningless to talk about emissions standards and air quality objectives without a legally enforceable compliance clause" says Narain.

The CSE strongly demands a public debate on the interim report before it is finalised. Till then the government should be prevented from passing off this extremely dubious and weak document as policy.

For further details contact: Right to Clean Air Team at Tel: +91 (011)-29955124, 29955125, 29956394, 29956401, 29956399 29956110