India subtly shifts on climate change agreements, but power gap persists

By Dhanasree Jayaram Source:Global Times Published: 2015-2-5 20:38:01

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

After the US-China agreement on climate change was signed in late 2014, expectations were high that India would also come on board during US President Barack Obama's recent visit to the country. Although a "concrete" agreement was not reached in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction commitments, a few crucial steps were taken in the direction of securing a stronger agreement at the Paris climate convention later in 2015.

India being the third largest emitter of GHGs is expected to take on the leadership role on the global climate change scene. However, India's per capita emissions stand at a meager 1.7 metric tons (mt), far behind the 17.6 mt of the US and China's 6.2 mt. Even in terms of aggregate emissions, India accounts for only 6.41 percent of the world's total GHG emissions.

More than 300 million people in India are still deprived of electricity. Furthermore, rural households that are inhabited by nearly 70 percent of the Indian population produce only a 16th of the emissions of the urban households. Such a large divide renders a nation-wide emissions reduction target not only unfeasible but also unfair. Hence, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite being the only political leader to have authored a book on climate change save for former US vice president Al Gore, has had to adopt the middle ground on climate change mitigation.

Modi's statement during the joint press conference with Obama made it clear that India would continue to place equal emphasis on mitigation and adaptation as well climate finance at the negotiations.

While China agreed for the first time to peak its carbon emissions by 2030, India evaded such commitments that would likely affect its growth agenda.

Although Modi underscored the sense of urgency and severity associated with climate change, he also asserted that India, as a sovereign country, cannot be pressurized by any external entity to make commitments.

However, he refrained from the usual jargon such as the "common but differentiated responsibility" and instead expressed willingness to work toward reaching a robust global agreement at the Paris summit. This in itself is a major shift in India's approach toward global climate policy.

India, at this stage, is keeping its options wide open as energy security, self-reliance and poverty alleviation remain its top priorities. This is why, in spite of the fact that clean energy is one of Modi's foremost priorities, the government plans to double the country's coal production to 1 billion tons annually, which cannot be considered a sustainable or environmentally sound option.

At the same time, Modi had earlier declared that India would produce 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022. Obama not only endorsed India's ambitious solar program but also reaffirmed his intent to provide financing for the development of solar power projects in India.

India is also looking to expand the share of nuclear power in its energy basket to achieve the twin objectives of improving the energy security scenario as well as reducing GHG emissions as nuclear energy is regarded as a "clean" fuel. This is why the recent nuclear agreements with the US are so important.

Most importantly, India and the US have agreed to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) - a potent GHG that is considered many more times detrimental than carbon dioxide to the climate. For a long time, India opposed any amendment to the Montreal Protocol to include HFCs among the gases that require to be phased out.

India's decision to revive the Indo-US HFC Task Force to discuss alternatives, technology transfer and finance and to cooperate under the auspices of the Montreal Protocol is being viewed as a welcome step.

With China and the US espousing certain commitments and India showing more keenness to attain "an ambitious climate agreement" in Paris in 2015, the three nations are likely to come together further to reach a consensus on the sharing of commitments - whether it is with regard to emissions cuts or the sharing of technological and financial resources.

The author is a visiting PhD scholar at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, the Netherlands. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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