India emits the most sulphur dioxide in the world

According to a recent analysis, India is contributing more than 15 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions, by emitting largest amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the world. With the primary reason being the expansion of coal-based electricity generation over the past decade, India stand among the top 5 SO2 emission hotspots across the world are in India.

The analysis is based on hotspots detected by NASA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite data that captured more than 500 major source points of SO2 emissions across the globe including natural sources such as volcanoes.

However, the analysis excluded all natural sources and only anthropogenic sources of SO2 were investigated. SO2 emissions are a significant contributor to air pollution. Its direct exposure and exposure to particulate matter PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) produced when SO2 reacts with other air pollutants to form sulphate particles both affect human health.

The study found the thermal power plants or clusters at Singrauli, Neyveli, Talcher, Jharsuguda, Korba, Kutch, Chennai, Ramagundam, Chandrapur, and Koradi to be the major emission hotspots in the country. The vast majority of plants in India lack flue-gas desulfurisation (FGD) technology to reduce air pollution, according to the report.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had, for the first time, introduced SO2 emission limits for coal-fired power plants in December 2015. But a Supreme Court order changed the deadline for installation of FGD technology in power plants from 2017 to December 2019 in Delhi-NCR and till 2022 for other parts of the country.

When it comes to individual hotspots, the Norilsk smelter site in Russia continues to be the largest anthropogenic SO2 emission hotspot in the world, followed by the Kriel area in Mpumalanga province of South Africa, Zagroz in Iran, and Rabigh in Saudi Arabia. Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh is at number five.

In fact, rising emissions have made India overtake China whose success in reducing emissions has also made Russia the number two emitter. China reduced their SO2 emissions through stringent emission norms and implementation of technologies like FGD.