The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) is a new independent research organisation focused on revealing the trends, causes, and health impacts, as well as the solutions to air pollution. Find them on Twitter.
We recently spoke with Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at CREA to learn more about the organization:
What was the motivation behind setting up CREA?
We are motivated to work towards reducing air pollution and speed up the transition to clean energy by:
– Supporting national and local-level advocacy efforts with high-quality research, modeling and data analysis that addresses issues relevant to the public and policymakers
– Identifying the sources of air pollution, assessing the health impacts and proposing solutions
What have you been working on?
We have a number of ongoing projects in Asia and Europe. A few highlights:
- Boom and Bust 2020: Tracking the Global Coal Plant Pipeline
- Air quality improvements due to COVID 19 lock-down In India
- Air quality, health and toxics impacts of the proposed coal power cluster in Payra, Bangladesh
- COVID19 Lockdowns across Southeast Asia improve air quality – but not everywhere
- Analysis: India’s CO2 emissions fall for first time in four decades amid coronavirus
Personally, what do you see as 2-3 critical needs to improve air quality in India?
- A complete re-look at mobility within cities. The COVID situation has forced many companies to move to work from home. If companies continue to adopt it in the future, we can take off thousands of cars from the road and provide space for public transport, NMT on roads and reduce air pollution.
- Implementation of emission standards for coal thermal power plants and other polluting industries would be crucial.
- Continue to improve cooking practices in rural India to reduce indoor air pollution
What are CREA’s plans for the next two years?
We aim to continue our work on scientific data, research and evidence to support the efforts of governments, companies and campaigning organizations worldwide in their efforts to move towards clean energy and clean air, believing that effective research and communication are the key to successful policies, investment decisions and advocacy efforts
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