How India could lead

Ashish Fernandes The big climate summit in Copenhagen is here, finally. However, “curiouser and curiouser” is probably what Alice would say about India’s current climate politics. The last few months have seen ironic role reversals. There have been public announcements that India must follow a greener development path to reduce CO2 emissions; something that those opposed to large dams and thermal power plants have been saying for decades. We have also seen strident statements that India must ‘develop’, even if this implies increasing emission levels. The twist is that the reduction in emissions is being proposed by Jairam Ramesh, head of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. And the opposition comes from a small albeit influential section of India’s environmental elite that sees this as a sell out to the US and a perpetuation of global climate injustice. A climate agreement that does not have the US and Annex I countries making sharp cuts in emissions (25-40% below 1990 levels) will, no doubt, serve little purpose. The debate gets heated around the issue of India taking domestic action to control its emissions. The UNFCCC recommends that in addition to absolute cuts from rich countries, major developing economies need to cut their emissions by 15-30%. This is something that Jairam Ramesh appears to support. The opposition so far has come from sections of civil society, who argue that India must not reduce the growth of its emissions unless the West first commits to significant cuts, provides finance and technology transfer to the poor countries. Addressing climate change demands unprecedented leadership from industrialised countries. During the Copenhagen Climate Summit, they must create trust and demonstrate their leadership by both committing to deep emissions reductions and providing a substantial amount of financing and technology for developing country mitigation, adaptation and forest protection. It is vital that we do not let the West off the hook; developed countries have to deliver significant emission cuts of 25% or more by 2020. They have to finance clean technologies in the developing world. However, there is nothing to stop us from showing climate leadership by simultaneously taking voluntary domestic action to reduce the growth of our emissions. India’s position must not waver on these key issues and we must be a leader for the G-77 bloc in this respect. The Indian Environment minister`s proactive communication on the issue of wanting to be a `deal maker` and not a `deal breaker` at Copenhagen, while keeping the pressure on the developed world to deliver the deep cuts, finance and technology, is appreciable approach in this regard. India, as a developing country does not need to undertake any GHG emission cuts. However, a carbon-intensive development path is not sustainable in the long term. So, it is in India`s interests to embark on a decarbonised, green, sustainable growth path. India`s National Action Plan on Climate Change envisages just that and preliminary calculations show that it has the potential to cut GHG emissions by nearly 35% with ambitious, implemented measures. We may see some kind of commitment as US and China have decided to move positively on this, shifting pressure on India as Jairam Ramesh agrees India can continue to grow at 7-8% even with some commitment on emissions. By pressuring the government not to reduce domestic emissions, we are consigning the nation to more coal plants, more inefficient and polluting transport systems, increased pollution-related illnesses and continuing energy inefficiency. India’s Integrated Energy Policy aims to increase generation to 800,000 MW from the current 160,000 MW. 70% of this increase will be coal, 10% large hydro. The massive amount of mining, forest destruction, fresh water and land this will entail would cause further displacement, environmental destruction, lack of clean water and livelihood insecurity. There are rising protests against coal across the country, from farmers in coastal Maharashtra and communities around the Raichur power plant, to others in Himachal Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Across India’s “coal belt”, dozens of communities are resisting the expansion of open pit coal mines. With the problems caused by mining, pollution from coal power plants, oil extraction and so forth – the livelihoods of the many thousands of communities across the country are threatened by both resource extraction and changing weather patterns. As the world’s oil supply starts to decline - 50% by 2020, a move to a low-carbon economy becomes inevitable. Those countries that make the transition fastest will reap significant economic and environmental benefits. It is here that India could take the lead. The Indian Government has become a tad more articulate on the issue of climate change. The Government realises the importance of the issue, but not the urgency. Not much was done by it until the release of an Approach paper - The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The implementation of the Mission elements mentioned in the NAPCC would determine the effectiveness of the philosophy/vision. India must provide reliable energy to the 400 million odd Indians. But we must not blindly accept that this will happen with the same development model that has failed so abysmally over the six decades since Independence. This is the risk that we run by opposing all domestic mitigation efforts. There is growing evidence that a bouquet of decentralized, renewable options (chiefly biogas, solar and wind) can provide far flung rural communities with energy at a much lower environmental and economic cost. This is where India must invest in. Solar alone can generate 20GW by 2020 as studies show. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, a part of the NAPCC is a welcome move, but still gaps exist on the actual implementation of the mission. Anyone who argues against India undertaking voluntary domestic mitigation measures is arguing in favour of prolonging an energy-intensive, ecologically damaging model of development that has conspicuously failed to benefit India’s poor over the last half century. We will be cutting off our own nose to spite the West. The sooner we (governments) undertake actions to mitigate climate change, the better. Climate change is happening now and is an urgent issue which needs to be dealt with today, like the science suggests. The longer we take, the more unpredictable climate change becomes. (The author is a campaigner with Greenpeace India)