India’s climate policy improved; US, China low performers
India has improved its climate policy significantly, a new report showed on Tuesday, which may blunt international criticism at the Paris climate conference on the country’s coal dependence to meet its energy needs.
India has improved its climate policy significantly, a new report showed on Tuesday, which may blunt international criticism at the Paris climate conference on the country’s coal dependence to meet its energy needs.
Solar power is expected to be among the biggest contributors to enhanced green power in India. (Praful Gangurde/HT File Photo)
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Many of the world’s richest nations and major players at the summit -- like the United States, China, Saudi Arabia and South Africa -- fared worse than India and were ranked as low-performing countries on the index of the top 50 carbon emitters of the world.
“India did better on climate policy, mainly on account of new focus on renewable and efficiency,” said Wendon Trio, director of the Climate Action Network Europe, at the release of the report by the NGO Germanwatch.
India has announced an ambitious 175 GW target for renewable energy by 2022 and 40% of energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also launched a global solar alliance at the start of the Paris climate summit this month.
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The focus on renewable sources helped India get an overall score of 58.19 out of 100, but dependence on coal earned it the lowest ranking on emissions growth. India is now the world’s third biggest carbon emitter after China and the United States and is expected to take the second slot by 2030.
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The focus on renewable sources helped India get an overall score of 58.19 out of 100, but dependence on coal earned it the lowest ranking on emissions growth. India is now the world’s third biggest carbon emitter after China and the United States and is expected to take the second slot by 2030.
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The rankings were made public a day after an international report said emissions in 2015 were expected to fall compared to previous years.
The Germanwatch data set off a debate on high emissions from the developed nations and their insignificant focus on low-carbon growth.
Many of the high emitters have blocked the talks, with Saudi Arabia stonewalling discussions on behalf of West Asia as the future of the region’s oil economy is in danger.
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The United States and Europe are not very keen on a liability clause in the loss and damage mechanism for affluent nations to provide compensation to vulnerable countries.
Although the rankings showed most developing countries have improved their climate policies in the past year, Oxfam executive director Helen Szoke said these nations are at risk of being squeezed out of critical negotiations on climate funding with the pace of the talks picking up.
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.
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