Climate change major threat for India: Expert

Prof Sachs says that both the countries are planning huge thermal power plants to meet its future energy needs, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Jan 22, 2007, 22:24:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Terming India and China as major future threats for adverse impact of climate change, Professor Jeffrey D Sachs, Special Advisor to Secretary General of United Nations, asked both the countries to deploy Carbon Capturing Summarisation (CCS) in the new power plants to reduce carbon emissions.

At the sidelines of Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2007, Professor Sachs said both the countries are planning huge thermal power plants to meet its future energy needs and they should look at new environment friendly technologies for the plants.

"One such option available is CCS but the problem is that it is relatively untested. But, it is an appropriate time to test the technology. India, US, China and Europe can join hands for implementing demonstrative CCS projects," he suggested.

Professor Sachs, however, agreed that richer countries should pay to India and China to test and then deploy these technologies in its thermal plants.

"United States has five per cent of world's population but contributes to 25 per cent of the world's total green house emissions. It should pay to check adverse impact of climate change," Sachs, who is a US citizen, said.

How can this happen when Bush administration does not consider climate change a 'real problem'? To this, Sachs reply was that public opinion after hurricanes like Katrina was changing fast in America and believed that in 2009 Presidential elections climate change would be one of the an important issues of debate.

Some of these challenges would be discussed in the framework of post Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012, Sachs said.

"First the scientific report of International Panel on Climate Change will come in early this year. It would be discussed by various countries and then the process of negotiations would start in December 2007 and by 2009, we expect a formal agreement by different countries. Kyoto protocol was one step closer to solution. Next step should be consequential," he asserted.

For India, Sachs identified securing enough water and food as major challenges of the impact of climate change.

Studies, especially on monsoon's erratic trends, suggest, he said that India's water resources would go down and it would impact agriculture production adversely.

"India needs investment in agriculture research for seeds that can grow on warmer conditions and are more drought resistant. India will have to develop irrigation system to thwart the climate change impact.

Much too little is being done in this area," he said.

He termed the governments interlinking of river project as the one not based on a proper 'scientific study' and can have huge ecological implications.

Similar project has been undertaken in China but it appears just an 'engineering wonder' that can go wrong, he said.

Sachs complimented the India government for running poverty alleviation programmes like National Rural Health Mission but cautioned against the excessive Public Private Participation approach.

"Like in America, it can create more inequalities. Sustainable medical facilities may become unaffordable for the poor," he said.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan @hindustantimes.com

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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