Air pollution in North India: Jarnail Singh, India Director, The Climate Group responds
November 8, 2019, New Delhi: Hazardous levels of air pollution are continuing to persist in India’s northern states. Citizens are looking to governments to urgently tackle what has now been officially declared as a public health emergency.
Jarnail Singh, India Director of international non-profit, The Climate Group said:
“Air pollution is a year-round issue in the National Capital Region. Every winter, however, the focus remains on stubble-burning by farmers in states neighbouring Delhi. While that’s a clear issue, the consistent pollution from fossil fuels – and in particular, diesel vehicle emissions – remains a significant constituent of the toxic smog throughout the year.
“We can see governments taking steps to address the issue, including bringing in the odd-even rule in Delhi – however, this is not enough. We urge governments to speed up the adoption of renewable energy and electric mobility (public and commercial) to help put an end to the pollution crisis and risk to human health.
“Through our work with Indian businesses and governments, we can see that good progress is being made in adopting renewable energy and electric mobility, through our initiatives RE100 and EV100. Leading Indian companies like Tata Motors, Dalmia Bharat Cement and Infosys are making efforts to source 100% renewable electricity. On the other hand, companies like State Bank of India, Wipro and Shuttl amongst others have committed to move to 100% electric vehicle fleets by 2030. As we enter a critical decade for climate action, we encourage even more companies to join these initiatives to supplement the efforts of the governments in accelerating climate action.”
ENDS
For interviews, please contact:
Shashwat Raj, Communications Manager – India, The Climate Group, +91 997 111 0144, [email protected]
Notes to editors
About The Climate Group
The Climate Group’s mission is to accelerate climate action to achieve a world of no more than 1.5°C of global warming and greater prosperity for all. We do this by bringing together powerful networks of business and governments that shift global markets and policies. We focus on the greatest global opportunities for change, take innovation and solutions to scale, and build ambition and pace. We are an international non-profit organization, founded in 2004, with offices in London, New Delhi and New York. Our business initiatives EV100, EP100 and RE100 are brought to you as part of the We Mean Business coalition. Visit TheClimateGroup.org and follow us on Twitter @ClimateGroup.
EV100 is a global initiative bringing together forward-looking companies committed to accelerating the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and making electric transport the new normal by 2030. Visit: https://www.theclimategroup.org/project/ev100
About RE100 campaign
RE100 is a global corporate leadership initiative bringing together influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.
Led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, RE100’s purpose is to accelerate change towards zero carbon grids, at global scale. Visit: http://there100.org/
