Indian Express
Though India’s per capita emission is low when compared to that of developed nations, it is among the top polluters of the world. The UN report on climate change sets 80 per cent reduction targets for developed countries and 20 per cent for developing countries like India and China by 2050. Sounds fair? But here is why India doesn’t think so:
INDIA’s ARGUMENT
l The country with 17 per cent of
the world population emits only 4 per cent of global greenhouse gases.
The government's stand is that climate change is an excuse by the West
to suppress the nation's economic boom.
l India's position is that
it will not compromise on its 8 per cent economic growth to arrest
global warming, arguing the industrialised West are the historical
polluters and they must make the first move.
l India—whose
population is predicted to reach 1.5 bn by 2050—must be allowed to
pollute on a per capita basis equally with the West.
l At present,
the average American citizen accounts for more than 15 times the carbon
emissions of the average Indian, the average Briton seven times.
India's emissions are predicted to surpass those of the US in 30 years.
l
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission,
attacked the UN report, calling it “unfair” and “fundamentally
misconceived”.
The Other view
l The argument is that the climate
change threat is real and India can’t wait for the West to act. India,
they say, must not hide behind its vast population
l By 2030, India will have higher emission rates than China and the US.
l
India has not drawn up a blueprint to tackle climate change, probably
the only country not to have one. The country could soon find itself
top of CO2 emission chart.
l National Thermal Power Corporation
(NTPC), India’s largest public sector power company, is the third
highest polluter in its category in the world. Electricity production
in India is carbon intensive, emitting more then twice as much CO2 per
kilowatt-hour than in the EU.
l Climate change will affect the poor
countries, not the rich. India, with 800 million poor people, will be
among the hardest hit.
l India’s automobile emission norms are
obsolete—the country is at least10 years behind Europe. The diesel used
in automobiles has one of the highest sulphur content in the world.
l
The highest income group in India, constituting one per cent of the
population, emits four-and-a-half times as much CO2 as the lowest
income group.
l Wealthy, less populous countries in the North are
very likely to suffer fewer devastating blows to their economies; they
may actually benefit with extended growing seasons. But India and other
South Asian nations will suffer if action is not taken now.
EFFECTS
l Changes to India’s annual monsoon are expected to result in severe droughts and intense flooding.
Scientists
predict that by the end of the century, the country will experience a
temperature increase of 3 to 5 degree Celsius and a 20 per cent rise in
summer monsoon rain.
l The IPCC says a population of 1.5 billion to
3.5 billion could face the risk of being afflicted by dengue by 2080 as
a result of global warming. Besides, worldwide it is estimated that an
additional 220 to 400 million people could be exposed to malaria.
l
Long-term damage to India’s water cycle. The livelihood of a vast
population in India depends on agriculture, forestry, wetlands and
fisheries and land use in these areas is strongly influenced by
water-based ecosystems that depend on monsoon rains.
l Sea levels
will rise by at least 40 cm by 2100, inundating vast areas on the
coastline, including some of the most densely populated cities whose
populations will be forced to migrate inland or build dykes
l Crop
productivity will fall, especially in non-irrigated land, as
temperatures rise for all of South Asia by as much as 1.2 degrees
Celsius on average by 2040, and even greater crop loss—of over 25 per
cent—as temperatures rise to up to 5.4 degrees Celsius by the end of
the century.
l Mortality due to heat-related deaths will climb, with
the poor, the elderly and daily wage earners and agricultural workers
suffering a rise in heat-related deaths
l Huge areas of Bangladesh
will go underwater and environmental refugees will flock to the Indian
border, exacerbating an already tense situation not only in the states
contiguous to Bangladesh but in cities as far off as Mumbai and Delhi.
Kyoto Pact
The Kyoto pact, which was rejected by
the United States, commits three dozen industrial countries that signed
on to cut emissions by an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels in
the next five years. One of the reasons Washington did not sign on was
because the pact did not set targets for fast-developing countries like
China and India. The US will come up with its own plan to cut
global-warming gases by mid-2008, and won’t commit to mandatory caps at
the UN climate conference in Bali, Indonesia. The United States is the
only major industrial country to have rejected the 1997 Kyoto pact.
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