The Prime Minister’s Office has finally given the authority to Bureau of Energy Efficiency to formulate the norms for auto fuel economy and notify the heavy industries, surface transport and power ministries about them under the Energy Conservation Act of India. It also stipulated that the implementation of these norms will be a responsibility of the surface transport ministry.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is now taking steps towards labeling the existing models in the first phase which will be later on converted to mandatory standards. The norms will be developed on the basis of mileage given by different petrol and diesel vehicles in the country.
In spite of the clear instructions from the PMO, debates in the industries continue to carry on. The road transport ministry held a meeting of its emissions committee to discuss the issue once again where representatives continued to raise the issue to make carbondioxide as the basis of deciding the norms and demanded that it be legally put on the list of ‘local pollutants’ .
On the other hand, climate experts have already warned that such a step would jeopardize India’s stand at the International Climate Meet as these norms will be too obscure for a common man to understand.
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