The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) pushed back the deadline for thermal plants to comply with Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) norms for the fourth time on 30th December 2024. Despite the externalities of coal-based generation being well-understood, the governance regime to address the associated emissions is lax and insufficient. In the nearly ten years since the deadlines for compliance were first introduced in 2015, the conversation around the emission norms has morphed into discourse focused on Pollution Control Equipment (PCE) and its installation and, in some instances, the need for SO2 norms at all. 

This article published in The Hindu on 7th February 2025 highlights the ambiguities and weaknesses with regard to emission norm compliance by Indian thermal plants.  It is a matter of particular concern, since a significant portion of thermal plants are already in advanced stages of setting up PCE. This progress on PCE, in light of the dealyed deadlines, will result in electricity consumers bearing the costs of such PCE without local communities realising the benefits of emssion control.