NDTV
A report on human development released by the UNDP
squarely blames the increasing carbon emissions in the world for the
rising poverty and decreasing nutrition levels in India.
''What
we know is that these shock effects such as droughts and floods can
have long term impacts in human development because when people face
droughts, they have to reduce their food intake, they have to take
their children out of school and these can limit the perspectives later
in life,'' said Ricardo Fuentes Nievea, Policy Specialist of United
Nations Development Project.
''In India, women who were born
during the droughts have had a lesser chance of primary schooling that
any other population,'' he added.
Using various methods to
determine the well-being of a country's development, the UNHRD ranked
India 128th on its human development index, a drop of two rankings
since last year. Bangladesh, though poorer, still ranks two places
higher to India.
However, blaming India's falling human development standard on global warming is controversial.
India is ranked the 4th largest carbon emitter in the world, just behind the United States, Australia and China.
But India's per capita carbon emissions are a lot lower. The US's per capita figures are twenty times that of India.
This
is an intense, political and economic game. Environmentalists warn the
UN report should not be used by the West to pressurise developing
countries into cutting carbon emissions.
''If you look at in
cumulative basis, you will see rich countries whose stocks are still in
atmosphere. This is the agreement we have with them, they will reduce
their emissions so we can increase them. So please don't fall in the
trap of the Western media who go on and on about the fact that India
and China are to be blamed for climate change,'' said Sunita Narain,
Director, Centre for Science and Environment.
The immediate
effects of climate change can already be noticed in India. Wheat
production is already in decline, for no other reason than climate
change, say experts, leading to chronic hunger and malnutrition.
And
for India's most vulnerable, such as these slum dwellers in New Delhi,
climate change may not be the most visible threat to their present but
it can become a greater danger to their future if left unchecked.
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