{"id":14588,"date":"2021-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/30-03-2021\/national-clean-air-programme-ncap-2\/"},"modified":"2021-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T00:00:00","slug":"national-clean-air-programme-ncap-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/30-03-2021\/national-clean-air-programme-ncap-2","title":{"rendered":"National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed for 132 identified cities for implementation of city specific action plans under <strong>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>A <strong>National Knowledge Network<\/strong> comprising leading air quality specialists has also been constituted as a technical advisory group to support activities <strong>under NCAP<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was launched by the <strong>MoEFCC <\/strong>in January 2019 as a long-term, time-bound, national level<strong> strategy that features:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Making determined efforts<\/strong> to deal with the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner.<\/li>\n<li>Achieving <strong>20% to 30% reduction target in Particulate Matter<\/strong> concentrations by 2024 where 2017 is kept as the base year for the comparison of concentration.<\/li>\n<li>Identification of <strong>122 non-attainment cities<\/strong> across the country based on the 2014-2018 Air Quality data.\n<ul>\n<li>Non- Attainment Cities are the cities which<strong> do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Preparation of the <strong>city specific action plans<\/strong> including measures to strengthen the monitoring network, reduce vehicular\/industrial emissions, increase public awareness etc.<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of the <strong>city specific action plans<\/strong> to be regularly monitored by Committees at Central and State level namely Steering Committee, Monitoring Committee and Implementation Committee.<\/li>\n<li>Facilitating collaborative, multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between the relevant central ministries, state governments and local bodies.<\/li>\n<li>Establishing a right mix with the existing policies and programmes which include the <strong>National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)<\/strong> and other government initiatives related to climate change.<\/li>\n<li>Constant change, activity and progress to get evolved based on the additional scientific and technical information as they emerge.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increasing number of monitoring stations<\/strong> in the country including rural monitoring stations, technology support.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Emphasis on awareness<\/strong> and capacity building initiatives.<\/li>\n<li>Setting up of<strong> certification agencies<\/strong> for monitoring equipment, source apportionment studies, emphasis on enforcement, specific sectoral interventions etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Objective<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To augment and evolve <strong>effective and proficient ambient air quality monitoring <\/strong>networks across the country.<\/li>\n<li>To have <strong>efficient data dissemination <\/strong>and public outreach mechanisms for timely measures for prevention and mitigation of air pollution.<\/li>\n<li>To have a feasible management plan for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NGT\u2019s directions on NCAP<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to modify the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).<\/li>\n<li>NCAP proposes 20-30% reduction of air pollution by 2024.<\/li>\n<li>NGT made the following direction:\n<ul>\n<li>Deadline to reduce air pollution by 20-30% by 2024 needs to be reduced.<\/li>\n<li>Increase the target of reduction.<\/li>\n<li>Review the action in terms of shift to e-vehicles and CNG vehicles, intensifying public transport systems, mechanical cleaning of roads, improvement in fuel quality, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure the assessment and installation of the requisite number of Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Systems within six months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Steps needed to make it more effective<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Need stronger mandate:<\/strong> It is necessary to create a firm mandate with a strong legal back up for cities and regions to implement NCAP in a time bound manner for effective reduction.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Higher ambitions:<\/strong> It needs to be told with a clear rider that NCAP should not become only a top-down prescriptive approach.\n<ul>\n<li>The NCAP will have to create enough room for tighter action that can be even stronger than the common minimum national programme as defined by NCAP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Need litmus test for effectiveness:<\/strong> NCAP has certainly helped kick start the much-awaited good practice of setting air pollution reduction targets.\n<ul>\n<li>It is necessary to find and outline our very own regulatory and market-based solutions without being draconian.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Need fiscal strategy: <\/strong>NCAP cannot be sustainable nor can it gain strength or make a difference on a longer-term basis if it does not have a clear fiscal strategy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For successful implementation of the action plan, there is a paramount need for <strong>cooperation and coordination among state agencies<\/strong> and technical supervision by expert Institutions of Repute.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/132-cities-on-board-to-take-national-clean-air-programme-forward-iits-nits-and-csir-institutions-to-guide-them\/articleshow\/81711265.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed for 132 identified cities for implementation of city specific action plans under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). A National Knowledge Network comprising leading air quality specialists has also been constituted as a technical advisory group to support activities under NCAP. National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[60,26],"class_list":["post-14588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-environmental-pollution-degradation","tag-gs-3"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/36834646268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}