The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, spent a busy day in Lahore on Thursday, October 17, 2019. They met the leadership of Punjab government, visited the SOS Children’s village, played cricket at the National Cricket Academy, visited the iconic Badshahi Masjid and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre.

Environmental protection was high on the couple’s agenda. An official statement confirmed that they aimed to "cover how communities in Pakistan are rapidly responding and adapting to the effects of climate change (and) keen to learn more about the climate change issues affecting Pakistan, and the positive work being undertaken to combat these challenges".

Prince William and Kate Middleton flew to Chitral and were shown Chiatibo glacier in Broghil National Park which has deteriorated rapidly as a consequence of climate change. Prince William called upon the governments of Pakistan and UK to "work together" amid an "impending global catastrophe" over climate change.

They visited the Margalla Hills National Park in Islamabad and were later briefed by Rab Nawaz, the senior director at World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) on raising environmental awareness through schools and stopping the persecution of animals, such as wolves, common leopards and snow leopards through community-based conservation.

Prince William and Kate Middleton though seemed much sensitised on the issue of climate change and environmental conservation but they ignored a very serious and pressing environmental issue the people of Punjab are grappling with - air pollution.

The royal couple spent over 24 hours in Lahore, breathing air which had dangerous pollutants, including particulate matter (PM2.5) -- the tiny dust particles that can enter lungs and become part of the blood system.

"The Shahi Jora (royal couple) was in seriously polluted air when it visited Lahore," says Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer.

When asked why didn’t the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge say anything on air pollution, Rafay says, "I imagine they’d be advised against saying so to avoid a diplomatic incident."

The safe limit for PM2.5 as defined by National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) for Ambient Air (http://www.environment.gov.pk/images/rules/SRO2010NEQSAirWaterNoise.pdf) is 35μg/m³ for 24 hours. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set 25μg/m³ as the 24-hour average.

"When the PM2.5 pollutant enters the atmosphere it takes weeks to settle and can travel hundreds of miles," says Dr Masood Arshad, a senior director at WWF-Pakistan.

Masood further says, "The sources that contribute to PM 2.5 include petrol and diesel engines in vehicles, coal-fired power plants, uncontrolled biomass combustion, construction activities, wildfires and even household cooking."

The air quality monitor at US Consulate in Lahore collects daily PM2.5 readings and converts that into Air Quality Index (AQI) that can help to inform health-related decisions. On October 17, 2019, when the royal family was in Lahore, the minimum AQI was 192 (Unhealthy) and the highest was 341 (Hazardous).

Environmental conservation being a provincial subject, the Punjab has developed parameters for nine pollutants but has not developed a collective Air Quality Index (AQI) that can help to gauge the quality of air.

It is certainly not that the royal family does not care about the air pollution problem. The Queen in a recent speech on October 14, 2019, addressed both houses of the UK parliament and called upon "measures to improve air quality".

The smog commission formed by the then chief justice of Lahore High Court, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, aimed to devise a smog policy that can help to protect the health of people. The commission submitted its report in 2018 identifying the main contributors to air pollution including vehicular emissions, emissions from industries especially brick kilns and steel furnaces, waste burning, stubble burning by farmers both in Pakistan and India and dust clouds among other factors.

Current situation

The air pollution crisis in Pakistan is worsening and the Punjab government has imposed a complete ban (under Section 144) on stubble burning and burning tyres, solid waste and shopping bags from October 1 till December 31. Also the brick kilns running on old technology would be closed from November 5 till December 20.

Alam points out that poor fuel quality is a ‘federal’ subject, "there is nothing planned to improve the quality of petroleum products imported and refined in Pakistan." He adds, "Unless this is done, and unless we stop burning coal for energy, we simply aren’t addressing the real problem."

Does the government have the required manpower to monitor stubble burning? "The Punjab government doesn’t have the manpower or equipment to monitor the stubble burning it has banned. And it doesn’t have the equipment to collect evidence that can secure prosecutions against polluters," says Alam.

The crop burning crisis

Satellite imagery by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed the number of crop burning incidents both in the Punjab of Pakistan and India. The data was processed by Hammad Gilani, Assistant Professor (Space Science), Institute of Space Technology, which revealed that in 2019 to-date, Pakistan’s Punjab has witnessed 1,964 crop burning incidents, whereas Indian Punjab has witnessed 4,866 crop burning incidents.

In the long-term from 2008-2019, Pakistan’s Punjab has witnessed 34,271 crop burning incidents, whereas Indian Punjab has encountered 379,349 crop burning incidents. This shows that stubble burning events in Indian Punjab are 11 times more in number as compared with Pakistan’s Punjab.

The Indian state of Haryana alone experienced 68,335 stubble burning incidents during the 11-year period.

Prince William and Kate Middleton during their visit were focused on environmental conservation in Pakistan. They visited the mountainous areas to see the effects of climate change but they didn’t talk about air pollution - a much serious environmental problem. A recent report (https://www.stateofglobalair.org/health) has already informed that Pakistan is ranked third after China and India, losing 128,000 lives in 2017 from air pollution. A mere statement by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge could have moved the Punjab government to take at least some measures to control smog. Perhaps they didn’t want to embarrass their hosts.

The writeris a 2018 Chevening Scholar with a master’s in International Journalism from Cardiff University. He is the recipient of 2019 Environmental Journalist award and 2015 Young Environmental Journalist award by Singapore Environment Council (SEC). He tweets @SyedMAbubakar and can be reached at s.m.abubakar@hotmail.com