Press release - May 3, 2017
New Delhi 3rd May 2017 | Air Pollution has become a national problem claiming 1.2 million lives every year in India and costing the economy an estimated 3% of the GDP. In 2015, India has witnessed more number of deaths per day than China. Amidst such chaos, further delaying the implementation of emission standards for the thermal power plants will only put public health at greater risk. The delay in the implementation will come at a cost of our lives and the government must assess the loss of public health before delaying the emission standards.
Reacting to the statement given by the Minister of Power Mr Piyush Goyal to the Financial Times, Sunil Dahiya, Campaigner, Climate and Energy, Greenpeace India said, “It has been 16 months since the notification came into force but there is no progress made towards controlling the SOx and NOx emission from the thermal power plants during this time. There is no information available on how many power plants have installed or commissioned the installation of the technology to comply to the notification. The pollution emission in the form of SO2, NOx and particulate matter impacts the population across India and need to be controlled as soon as possible to safeguard the rights of the citizens to breathe clean and healthier air.”
Greenpeace India demands timely and quick implementation of the new emission standards along with transparent information to be made public on the status of implementation of the emission standards, i.e., number of power plants complying to the notification, number of power plants which have commissioned retrofication to comply to the notification or are in any other stages of development etc.
“We have right to breathe clean air and implementation of the emission standards of thermal power plants as soon as we can is one step towards that direction”; concluded Dahiya.
For further details-
Madhulika Verma, 
; 9971137736
Sunil Dahiya, 
; 9013673250