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Journalism of Courage
Delhi signed the ‘C40 Clean Air Cities Declaration’ Friday, pledging to implement a slew of clean air policies under the watch of a Special Task Force (STF) chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The Chief Minister made the announcement during a joint press conference at Copenhagen C40, which he addressed via video conferencing.
In his opening remarks, Kejriwal said that he “could not be here due to unavoidable circumstances”. The Chief Minister was denied political clearance to lead an eight-member delegation to the summit in Denmark by the Ministry of External Affairs, following which the organisers of the summit offered to let him address the meeting through video conferencing.
“We are going to form an STF in the coming days, which will be chaired by me. It will have ministers, experts and senior officers. We will monitor the implementation of measures under the C40 declaration,” Kejriwal said.
Meanwhile, in an official statement, the organisers said: “The pledge unveiled today at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen commits cities to set ambitious pollution reduction targets and implement substantive clean air policies by 2025.”
If the 35 signatories to the declaration reduce annual average PM2.5 levels to WHO guidelines (10 ug/m3), the statement said, “it could avoid 40,000 deaths each year”. The Central Pollution Control Board’s safe standards of PM2.5 are 60 ug/m3 (microgram per cubic metre). Apart from Delhi, there are 34 other signatories to the declaration, including Bengaluru, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Paris, Sydney and Washington DC.
In his speech, Kejriwal listed the measures taken in the capital since the AAP government took office in 2015, including two phases of odd-even scheme, closure of thermal power plants operating from within the city’s limits and discouraging use of diesel generators.
Addressing a closed session on air quality later, Kejriwal said his government decided to implement the Odd-Even scheme despite being warned that the move may upset people and have political consequences.
“We received positive feedback from the citizens, and they accepted it wholeheartedly… This lifted our spirits and pushed us to take several other steps,” he said.
The CM also praised environment activist Greta Thunberg for uniting people across the world on the issue of climate change.
Later, in a tweet, Kejriwal explained why he spoke in Hindi: “Language is an intrinsic part of any country’s culture and identity. If we love India, it is only natural that we love its languages. Indians should also take pride in speaking in any Indian language like people of China, Japan, France do while speaking in their respective mother tongue. This doesn’t mean I am against English… But when presenting India’s case in global forums, we will do so in our own language with pride.”
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