Pollution control boards GAINS at CEPT workshop

GAINS,or Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies,is an assessment model that simultaneously measures parameters like meteorology,technology,health indicators,atmospheric chemistry,socio-economic activities,population and policy regulations,to name a few.

This data can then be used to suggest governments about the most effective yet cheapest method to lower pollution levels,said Fabian Wagner of the IIASA,who is here for the workshop. “A scientist who has collated data (about climate change and its effects and causes) can tell the government ‘this is what you should do’. But the government may not always follow the suggestion because of development and political compulsions. But the whole idea of an integrated assessment method such as GAINS) is about putting everything,including such policy considerations,together and making a model out of it,” Wagner said.

Regulators,of the ranks of environment engineer and above,from the Central Pollution Control Board and state boards of Gujarat,Rajasthan,Maharashtra,MP,UP,Haryana,Punjab and Delhi,are taking part in the workshop that would train them how to use the software.

Anil Kumar Roy,Associate Professor at CEPT’s Faculty of Planning and Public Policy and one of the organisers,said the participants already have the requisite skills to operate the model,and the main aim is now to make them acquainted with its applications at the local level,such as state and city specific modelling. The model is adaptable to various scales as needed,he said.

Wagner,however,cautioned that like other scientific models,collecting data and updating them is always a “big job”,and that his institute also employs three full-time data operators for the task.

It is not clear as yet when the model would be used in India. Currently,several separate models are used to measure and regulate emissions in the country.

Meanwhile,a preliminary study done on India using GAINS has projected that by 2030,there would be a five-fold increase in sulphur dioxide emissions due to coal-based power generation and a three-fold increase in nitrogen oxide from sources apart from vehicles. The study notes that the government could half such emissions and the consequent health effects by using up to 0.8 per cent of the GDP to implement across-the-board pollution control processes like installing advanced technologies.

It further suggests that simpler measures like energy efficiency improvements,fuel substitution,co-generation of heat and power,and integrated coal gasification combined cycle (ICGCC) plants among others would yield similar results but at half the cost.