ABSTRACT

While the problem of Delhi’s air pollution is well recognized, as is the class bias of the judiciary in targeting certain sources of air pollution over others, what is less will understood are the unintended consequences of air pollution interventions on indoor and outdoor air quality. This paper shows how the National Green Tribunal has targeted one source of air pollution in recommending waste-to-energy technologies that deprive waste pickers of their livelihoods. The pandemic-related lockdown provides an opportunity to assess the impacts of livelihood deprivation on fuel use. Using data collected from surveys of waste pickers, this paper shows that decreases in income are related to an increase in reliance on solid fuels. Therefore, we argue that air pollution interventions designed to control air pollution from poor waste management have the unintended consequence of increasing air pollution from a different source (biomass burning for cooking) that specifically impacts waste pickers by increasing their exposure to indoor air pollution, while also undermining the government’s urban air pollution mitigation efforts overall.

摘要

虽然德里的空气污染问题众所周知，司法机构在针对某些空气污染源而不是其他空气污染源时存在阶级偏见，但人们不太了解的是空气污染干预措施对室内和室外空气质量的意外后果。本文展示了国家绿色法庭如何针对一种空气污染源推荐废物能源技术，剥夺拾荒者的生计。与大流行相关的封锁提供了一个机会来评估生计剥夺对燃料使用的影响。本文使用从拾荒者调查中收集的数据表明，收入减少与对固体燃料的依赖增加有关。所以，