A cap for India?
Photo credit: Daniel Bachhuber
There is a new change of tone in the already tense negotiations on climate change, if we look at the recent comments the European Commission has directed at India and China. The EC is now pitching for emission caps for both these countries. This is an approach that the Indian government has long said is off the table. Chidambaram has spoken before of India’s ‘right to development’ - that since India is still a developing country and has to address the critical issues of poverty and growth, it has to postpone any commitments to reduce emissions.
Whether the EC’s tone gets sharper or not, depends on the US position on developing country emissions. I believe though, that India has a chance to set the tone of the emissions debate. So far, we have been backbenchers when it comes to global negotiations on climate change, responding only when we are forced to. But India as an emerging economy, has some precious flexibility when it comes to growth and emissions that both the US and Europe lack.
As developed nations, both the US and Europe have high emission infrastructure in place as well as ‘high-emission habits’ - in terms of car ownership, consumption, polluting industries and agriculture approaches - that will be difficult to break or change. India on the other hand, still does not have its infrastructure fully in place. Car ownership is still extremely low, and the high consumption economy is still not in place here. We consequently have a chance to carve a development path that is environmentally safer than the ones that developed nations have pursued. Such an approach ought to be pursued for its own sake, rather than because of external pressures.
The big mistake of the developed world was in ignoring the impact on the environment during their high growth phase. For writers such as Charles Dickens, the smog of 19th century London- created by coal-burning in the city - was a consant theme in his novels about urban decay. Much of the West never considered that use of the environment ought to be ‘priced’ the same way other resources are. This however, was something that Indian environmentalists such as Anil Agarwal suggested as early as the 1980s, when they noted that GNP ought to be about ‘gross natural product’ rather than ‘gross national product’. With an approach that prices environmental resources, industries would have to pay for dumping untreated waste into our rivers; open coal mines could no longer pollute the surrounding land, turning our soil into unusable sludge. Razing down forests and building a coal-fired plant would have to be ‘compensated’ for, by funding a green project elsewhere.
Who could such an approach benefit? And how much would it hurt us in our growth numbers? I have some thoughts on this, that I’ll follow up on in a second post.
Tags: climate change, emission norms
February 10th, 2009 at 7:23 am
At any cost, our nature should be protected. Else it will be “us” whos gonna suffer, noone else. “Develop in Green” should be our new slogan!…on our road to form a “developed” nation, we shouldn’t forget nature, which gives us food, water and air (for its abundancy we r developing), or what ?
February 10th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Once the famous Russi Modi of Tata Steel said:
India is perhaps the only country where, you will not be arrested for:
- Pissing on the middle of the road and
- Opening up a temple anywhere
It is a paradox - religion and uncleanliness, but true! And of course, we love our homes, keeps our things ultra clean, but when comes to society such as road, dustbins, railways - free ka maal hai, do anything you want.
And India is only country where you will see huge houses and narrow roads. Japan is just the reverse. I am not saying India can be Japan, but it shows the mentality.
I think that is going to be the biggest challenge. Private players will anyway smell money in infrastructure and jump in. But what about - we the people ???
February 10th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Tom Friedman actually “answered that part” as to why should India/China (or, Chindia - don’t know where I got that term) start going green in his book “Hot, Flat and Crowded”. (Wish I could get the page number, etc. I have loaned the book to a friend). He says (not in exactly these words, of course), it is necessary that we (Chindia) start going green immediately because if we didn’t then US will come to Chindia to sell all the green solutions at a high premium. That would be the time when natural resources would have dwindled already and we would not have anything quick-cheap-easy to supplant with.
Here is an idea. (Probably, Infosys could spearhead this). Get BSNL/Airtel to provide hi-speed broad band connections to Bangalore and other places where IT professionals are high. Follow it up with tier 2 cities as well. Then, let IT companies (for example, Infosys) get a tax rebate if it could show that a % age of its employees don’t commute at all but work from home full time. Employees don’t have to struggle to beat the rush hour. Some employees wouldn’t even have to relocate to Bangalore. IT companies get a tax rebate and environment turns a bit greener.
Yeah, I know, looks good perhaps on paper but may not materialise. (Mr Nilekani’s book has umpteen examples, of course.)
I don’t work for Infosys but I am a s/w professional. I work 3 days from home and am no less productive.
February 10th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Hi
There was a saying by Mahatma Gandhi
“Earth provides sufficient to fulfill everyones needs but not greed”. Now looking at the USA and Europe, we (Indian) want to set our standard to their level. But is that standard a greed or a need? That is the first question to be asked.
If want to set the same standard we will go in the same path as USA had moved. We can not follow the same suit, we need to set a different and unique standard which will keep our nature green and clean. We are developing and we have an opportunity to set it and that is what we should catch. We still have the flexibility to do experiments and innovate.
February 14th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Great post Nandan! This is a great opportunity for India and its businesses to innovate and pioneer the green revolution. If we don’t take the initiative to create a sustainable and environmental friendly growth path we stand to lose in the longer term. This will drastically impact the quality of life of our people in addition to the massive clean up costs & efforts that we may need to spend later.
The Indian government needs to catalyst in the whole process to enable sustainable growth. Govt needs to encourage clean technologies by promoting companies that develop these technologies. They should also invest heavily on the following areas:
- Developing alternate energy(Wind, Solar, Hydro electric, Nuclear etc.) to meet our growing energy needs
- Building efficient mass transport systems for all Tier 1 & Tier 2 cities
- Promote civilian adoption of energy efficient & alternate energy technologies (CFL bulbs, Solar water heaters, energy efficient appliances etc.)
- Research and development on clean/green technologies
The next great opportunity/growth area is clean technologies & green revolution. We need to grab this opportunity and lead the change from front lines if we are going to lead the world!
February 14th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Indian Business leaders should promote Emmigration
Hi Nandan,
Dont we see the real reason in today’s flat world to hold India back is the limited resources be it land , free sky , raliways and Airports that we have compared to America , Australi or Europe . We have abundance of people mostly hard working and sharp minded what we lack is repources . I think Indian business leaders like you should spread the India Youth to all parts of world which you are already doing but now it should to be taken the next level where Indians are seen in mainstream of all countries . We should see more Indians not just in offices , but in shopping malls , shopkeepers , policemen etc and the only thing which can be done is to actively lobby with foreign governments to give permanent residency to Indians who are truely the world’s citizens .