India, EU set to lock horns over new green norms at Brazil meet

India is all set to oppose the European Union’s move to bring about new green economy norms and set up a specialised body for environment, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20 to 22.

Updated on: Jun 8, 2012, 01:13:44 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India is all set to oppose the European Union’s move to bring about new green economy norms and set up a specialised body for environment, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20 to 22.

As many as 100 world leaders, including PM Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama, are expected to chart out new goals for sustainable development at the summit.

The UN has prepared a zero draft of the outcome document — ‘The future we want’ — for the event.

The zero draft sets new green economy norms in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, besides bringing about new accounting norms to monitor the goals, converting the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into a global specialised environment body, and setting up a global economic and social council. It also prescribes social development goals (SDGs) for 2030 in the place of millennium development goals – applicable till 2015.

The cabinet on Thursday approved a note from the environment ministry, explaining India’s belief that poverty eradication and social development should be overarching goals, green economy being one of the means to achieve them.

“Developed countries are pushing for development and adoption beyond GDP indicators, such as accounting of natural capital and social well-being, including human rights,” the note said, adding that the developing world does not support such indicators.

The note said the EU was quite ambitious about green economy, and has put “undue” focus on environmental dimensions – ignoring socio-economic issues. The EU’s position will slow down the economic growth of India through environmental restrictions, the ministry said. India is also apprehensive about the EU’s position on adopting SDGs without any international financing, terming it as an attempt to “blunt” competition from developing economies.

The ministry has sought the cabinet’s approval to oppose the new green economy norms and finalisation of thematic SDGs, stating that only a process aimed at working out the goals in a more “inclusive” manner would be acceptable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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