PM Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of the National Development Council, a body comprising all the chief ministers and key cabinet ministers, to seek a national consensus on India’s position at the Copenhagen meet on climate change in December. Chetan Chauhan reports. Tough questions | The Carbon Bomb | FULL COVERAGE
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), a body comprising all the chief ministers and key cabinet ministers, to seek a national consensus on India’s position at the Copenhagen meet on climate change in December. The carbon bomb
HT Image
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The government has signalled that it may amend some of its positions on climate change, as developed countries are pressing for more flexibility. Opposition parties have, however, warned against any shift in stance.
India’s existing position includes a commitment that it will not allow its per capita emissions to rise above the levels of the developed world. Tough questions
India’s per capita emission of greenhouse gases is 1/20th of the US’s. It is the fourth largest polluter in the world and the US, the second.
In a note sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 13, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that “a per capita plus approach is essential since the per capita approach alone is not a sustainable basis for negotiations”. A ‘per capita plus’ approach will include a law giving incentives for emission reduction and the use of renewable energy sources.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
Developed countries may offer between $90 billion (about Rs 414,000 crore) and $140 billion (Rs 644,000 crore) per year to developing countries agreeing to greenhouse gas emission cuts. This money could be used for adopting clean technology. In the past four years, the sale of carbon credits to the West using clean technology in India grew from a few hundred crore of rupees to Rs 23,500 crore.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
Developed countries may offer between $90 billion (about Rs 414,000 crore) and $140 billion (Rs 644,000 crore) per year to developing countries agreeing to greenhouse gas emission cuts. This money could be used for adopting clean technology. In the past four years, the sale of carbon credits to the West using clean technology in India grew from a few hundred crore of rupees to Rs 23,500 crore.
{{/usCountry}}
In his note to the PM, Ramesh suggested some nuanced changes in India’s negotiating positions on climate change. He said the country had been accused of being a “deal breaker” by the developed world for its stand, but now it wanted to be a “deal maker”.
Sources familiar with the developments said the government would want a political consensus before amending its position on climate change.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The BJP and the Left have opposed any changes in India’s position on climate change. “India shouldn’t accept any limit to its emission growth unless rich countries agree to pay for the same,” said CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury.
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.
