Pollution needs to be an electoral issue in North India

Air pollution needs to be made an electoral issue in north India to send out a strong message, said Navroz K Dubash at ‘Fighting Pollution: When breath becomes poison’ on Day 2 of the Times Litfest 2019. Calling for behavioural changes to be made in the way we commute and live, Dubash says air pollution and climate change may be distinct issues, and both are problems of a broader malaise that needs to be tackled simultaneously.
“We are globally in a situation where we don't think about the implications about our lifestyle changes.How do we get to work without a car? Can we share with our neighbour? We need to be nudged into re-thinking about our lifestyle and this means no taking quick flights to zip away. We may have to own fewer clothes too,” said Dubash, who recently authored ‘India in a Warming World’ – a book on how India is dealing with climate change.
“We have to send a signal in north India that air pollution has to become a voting issue and hopefully we can see that in the coming elections,” said Dubash while addressing the audience.
He was joined by Varun Sivaraman, who authored the book ‘Taming the Sun’ – an outlook on the solar sector and the changes that will need to be made to effectively use it. Sivaraman says the shift towards solar energy and wind energy is important, but the problems that will come with it need to be addressed 5-10 years in advance.
“Every hour, the sun brings us more energy than what the entire world is using but we just need to learn how to utilise it. The obvious problems are that the sun is not shining but I need the electricity right now and storing that energy is just one aspect. We need to think of technological solutions, of which there are many and the problems that we may encounter 10 years down the line by adopting these solutions,” Sivaram said.
According to Dubash, changing the way our cities are built, beginning from the transport system will define the liveability of the city down the line. “We are building our cities around private cars but this is simply not feasible. We need to build them about a good transport system. How we build our cities ahead is what will define how we tackle climate change and air pollution,” said Dubash.
Giving the example of how Los Angeles turned around its smog problem in the 1970s, Sivaram says India could be the biggest emitter of greenhouses gases by 2050, even ahead of China and any road to solving climate change will go through India. “Los Angeles is a great example of how they cleaned up their emissions, shut down polluting power plants and made strong decisions. We’ll eventually have to do the same as well.”