India ranks first as the world’s largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2), a poisonous gas that increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and premature death. In 2019, India emitted 21% of global anthropogenic (human-made) SO2 emissions, the report by Greenpeace India and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), released on Tuesday, said.

India’s SO2 emission is double that of the second-ranked global emitter, Russia. China occupies the third spot.

The biggest emission hotspots in India are thermal power stations (or clusters of power stations) at Singrauli, Neyveli, Sipat, Mundra, Korba, Bonda, Tamnar, Talcher, Jharsuguda, Kutch, Surat, Chennai, Ramagundam, Chandrapur, Visakhapatnam and Koradi.

Despite the huge amount of emission, India’s SO2 emissions recorded a significant decline of approximately 6% in 2019 as compared to 2018, the report noted. It is the steepest dip in four years.

“While credit needs to be given to India for making ambitious strides in renewable energy, contrarily concern arises from the consistent support given to coal-based energy generation,” as per the report.

India has been faring reasonably well in its clean energy transition and has set itself one of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy targets but lack of FGD units in most power plants overshadows it, the report said.

In 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change introduced SO2 emission limits for coal power stations. But power plants missed the initial deadline of December 2017 for the installation of FGD units, the report said.

“Though the deadline was extended till 2022, as of June 2020 most of the power plants are operating without compliance to standards.  “Five years after setting the SO2 emission limits, the Indian government has decided to shut down non-compliant thermal power stations and has also allocated Rs 4,400 crore to tackle the air pollution crisis,” the report noted.

Greenpeace India has released an analysis of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data, saying India has more than 15 per cent of all anthropogenic sulphur dioxide (SO2) hotspots in the world detected by the OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite.