Delhi plans to spend $600 mn to clean its polluted air, says official

India’s Delhi state plans to spend $600 million over three years to electrify most of its public transport to improve air quality in one of the world’s most-polluted cities.
 

The state, which regularly tops global air pollution charts, is working on a strategy to make 80% of its buses electric by 2025, set up more charging stations and switch one-fourth of its power supply to solar to tackle the problem, said Jasmine Shah, vice chairman of the Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission.

India’s mega urban centers, including capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai, are allocating funds to clean their water and air as population surges and the negative impact of climate change intensifies. Delhi’s plans are in line with the target of the South Asian nation, the world’s third-biggest polluter, to gradually reduce harmful emissions to net zero. 

Budgetary support is not the main problem, Shah told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Thursday. The biggest issue is the lack of political will, he said. “Over time, maybe in the years to come, additional budgetary support like green bonds or international finance will be crucial,” Shah said, adding that Delhi is currently funding its green efforts through own resources.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s target of net zero emissions by 2070 at the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year. The country, which submitted its updated climate commitments to the United Nations this month, has taken a series of policy measures, including production-linked incentives to manufacture electric vehicles and batteries, and amendments to energy use laws, besides unveiling a national hydrogen plan.

Electric vehicles accounted for 12% of total registrations in Delhi in the past two years, Shah said. The state has set up 2,500 public charging points, the highest in India, to help EVs charge by paying as low as 3 cents, he said, adding that Delhi has also closed all thermal power plants to help improve air quality.