Dark Days
India may have its own reasons for not agreeing with the timeline to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as proposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. But political bargains between big and small nations are not going to forestall the dangers of global warming. If anything, developing countries are more likely to face the brunt of nature's fury as the temperature of the earth rises and cyclones, tsunamis and floods are unleashed on the people. So it makes sense to make a start somewhere, and what better way than to learn to harness the resources of the natural world. Solar energy is one of the most obvious places to begin with. Not only is it ubiquitous, but technology has also made its utilization relatively inexpensive and easily accessible. However, sensible thinking has generally eluded the people who run West Bengal. So one is not particularly surprised to learn that the rate of dissemination of solar energy in West Bengal, a state blessed with sunlight for around 250 days in the year, has been abysmal. In 2007, the Bengal Municipal (Building) Rules had stipulated that new houses or extensions of existing ones must use solar energy. Yet, apart from the Sunderbans, the rest of the state has neglected this injunction with the usual brazenness that it reserves for laws governing vehicular and sound pollution.
Even less surprising is the news that compared to West Bengal, there has been a significant rise in the popularity of this alternative mode of energy in states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Gujarat. To make a new scheme work, any administration has to introduce subsidies and raise public awareness — the two counts on which Bengal's Left Front government has signally failed. Since last February, subsidies to individuals have been stopped, resulting in a marked fall in the sales of solar-energy equipment. And thus, yet another flicker of change is being put out by the State.
No Promises
Jairam Ramesh, once the Congress's stormy petrel, has a storm raging in his environment ministry. On one side are old-style nationalists. They follow the Nehru line that developed countries are villains and developing countries are innocent victims. This line followed in Nehruvian times from two centuries of colonialism; then, the colonial masters were the perpetrators and the colonies the perpetrated. This line went out of fashion in the last two decades as India grew and acquired self-confidence. It continued, however, to survive in an attic of the foreign ministry, whence it has re-emerged. Its new form is that industrial countries spewed out those greenhouse gases which now threaten to roast the world. It is their duty to remove or mitigate them. India has meanwhile industrialized and continues to do so. But its sins are too recent to consider; it should be considered innocent until the guilty have served their sentences.
On the other side is a minority which believes that Indians are no special species, but are citizens of the world. It faces an urgent crisis; if world temperatures rise, the catastrophe will strike India as surely as it does the rest of the world. The 21st century requires development of a new style of living and livelihood. Participating in its development is not only right, but desirable; it will give India a voice in shaping it. India should accept the responsibility for cutting down its emissions, and ask for assistance from technologically advanced countries to do so.
Given his political loyalties, Nehruvian intransigence came naturally to Mr Ramesh. But then he realized that it would exclude India from the negotiations that will decide the strategy for dealing with climate change. Already the European Union is talking about imposing duties on imports in proportion to their carbon footprint. By not keeping pace with the world in mitigative policies, India would not only miss out on the technologies that will be developed to reduce emissions, but would also find its exports excluded from industrial countries' markets. The minister may go to world forums and rant against the injustice, but by definition, the world is never fair to an iconic developing country like India. So Mr Ramesh wrote to the prime minister in June proposing a change in India's stance. The consensus that emerged from the ensuing confabulations was that Mr Ramesh should prevaricate. He announced a national target for reduction of emissions, but said that he would not promise any reductions; it would be just a promise to himself. He worked out a national plan of sorts, and defended it in Parliament and outside. But he promised not to defend it outside the country. So he has gone to Copenhagen, where he will sit on a fence and whisper his promise. But it is an unwise resolution; for what he does not promise, he will get nothing in return.
To see the original editorial in the Telegraph visit: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091214/jsp/opinion/story_11855667.jsp
