Emissions around the world - part 2
Well it’s been a week since I emailed our department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, with no reply as of yet. I’m not too surprised, considering the fact that I’ve emailed the department before and received absolutely no response. If anyone would like to assits me in nagging these people for an answer, you can email Mr. Peter Lukey, the Chief Directorate: Air Quality Management & Climate Change or Mr. Mazwe Lushaba. Anyway, in the absence of any form of governmental participation from our “public servants” in Pretoria, I thought I’d discuss Indian emissions legislation. Why Indian legislation, you ask? 2 reasons:
1) India’s a developing country like us, so their approach may be particularly relevant in the South African context.
2) I was going to write about American legislation, but got mired down by a forest of acronyms, tiers, bins and state-specific legislature. Fear not, the American article will follow - I’ve appealed for outside help - but right now I’m simply not knowledgable enough on the subject to comment.
Anyway, on to India:
Since the year 2000, India started adopting European emission and fuel regulations for all light- and heavy-duty four wheeled vehicles. India’s own emission regulations still apply to two- and three-wheeled vehicles. You will notice that India lags behind Europe. Current Indian legislation for cars is equivalent to Euro 2, which was phased out in Europe in 1999. India aims to implement Euro 3 standards between 2008 and 2010. Euro 4 standards will only be implemented some time after 2010. By this stage, Europe itself would have already implemented its Euro 5 standard.
Although it’s a positive step that one of the world’s most populous countries has introduced limitations on its vehicle emissions, it’s nevertheless quite worrying that a country of this size is only conforming to outdated standards. Although only a fraction of Indians currently own cars, there is massive growth in automotive sales as India’s economy goes from strength to strength. One wonders whether the drastic increase of Indian vehicles may offset any positive developments being made in the USA and Europe.
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