Commercial eCooking for tackling Ambient Air Pollution
Delhi’s Deteriorating Air Quality has attracted GRAP stage 4 measures by CAQM. With the unfavourable wind, stubble burning, transport, population density, and aftereffects of festivities, AQI remained in the severe or severe plus category in November. The Government of Delhi invoked GRAP measures, which restrict coal and firewood use including tandoors at hotels, restaurants, and open eateries. It discouraged overaged diesel/petrol vehicles on the road, asked DISCOMs to minimize power supply interruptions in the region, and Diesel generator sets not being used as a regular source of power supply, among other measures.
While the GRAP measures include ensuring hotels, restaurants, and open eateries use only electricity/gas/clean fuel-based applications, during worsened Air Quality, restrictions like these on a need-basis can only solve issues for a shorter period. Transition to Modern energy cooking appliances is one such solution to tackle Air pollution at scale.
As per the analysis done by CSE, a policy research and advocacy firm, 13% of total GHG emissions in India are contributed by the cooking
sector[1]. Biomass/coal-based cooking practices are still prevalent in India. 41% of India still relies on biomass for cooking, emitting 340 million tonnes of CO2 annually, according to the report.
Restaurants alone emit 172942 CO2e of GHG in Delhi every year, constituting around 2% of total GHG emissions in Delhi[2], says IIT Kanpur’s report, Surpassing the emissions from Landfills, agriculture, Diesel generator sets, aircraft, and wetlands in the city.
Hindu
The use of Coal/wood in the tandoor has traditionally been a part of Delhi’s food culture, Restaurants continue to use it even after the authorities banned it in 2018 and fined the restaurants on several occasions. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) argued that charcoal-fuelled tandoors and grills were a key source of PM2.5, ultrafine particulate matter that often rises 30 times beyond international safe limits in the Delhi air every winter [3].
Ambient air pollution has severe effects on health. It is estimated to have caused 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019, this mortality is due to exposure to fine particulate matter, which causes cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers [4]. PM2.5 According to “State of Global Air (SoGA) 2024,” published by the US-based research organization Health Effects Institute (HEI), air pollution has surpassed tobacco and diabetes as the leading cause of death, trailing only hypertension. Diseases and ailments linked to air pollution claimed 8.1 million lives worldwide in 2021, with India (2.1 million deaths) accounting for one in four of these deaths[5].
The government’s initiatives must be multidimensional in pursuit of decarbonization. Awareness, Innovation, and apt policy are crucial for transitioning and adopting clean cooking in India. Adaptation of clean energy based cooking appliances is the way forward to reduce the GHG emissions from restaurants while other measures must be taken on the other GHG emitting sectors as well. Clean cooking appliances of institutional scale are the need of the hour so that the eateries continue to serve delicious food to the people, without filling out greenhouse gases to the environment.