Paris Talks: India criticizes climate draft, expects more

Last Thursday, the world received its answer. But China’s new push to lower its emissions undercuts the argument that Western efforts to combat climate change won’t ultimately make a difference. This is particularly true of India.

Javadekar said in its INDCs, India has raised questions on actions of developed countries to tackle climate change.

Further, India intends to obtain technology transfers from other countries, as well as aid from the Green Climate Fund that was established by the United Nations to solicit donations from wealthy countries to help poor countries adapt their economies to lower-carbon technologies.

We also know that Paris is going to be a deal that burns the planet because, at the time of writing, 119 submissions of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – voluntary reduction pledges – had been made, including by all major emitters. This means, intention to decide in Paris by when global emissions should peak, thereby indirectly imposing growth restrictions on developing countries such as India. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of this year, China has said, it, too, will commit to binding emissions cuts.

India and other developing nations are reluctant to cut emissions because their economies are deeply dependent on cheap, carbon emitting, forms of energy.

So what has India pledged to do? This is crucial because countries’ published intentions ahead of the Paris meeting are likely to fall short of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 and beyond to limit the global average temperature rise to less than two degrees.

By pledging to reduce its emission intensity by 33%-35% from the 2005 levels by 2030, India would still have to make significant changes in the way energy is produced in the country.

On mitigation, several bracketed options are provided in the draft agreement for a long-term decarbonisation target, ranging from a peaking of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to “climate neutrality”, without suggesting an implementation date nor at what level these might plateau or be reduced. Well, the whole process being captured by corporations, especially by the fossil fuel and extractives industry – the main source of emissions.

The CAT also found the Indian Government’s description of its INDC to be lacking detail. According to the worldwide Energy Agency, coal is expected to increase from 43 percent of India’s total energy supply today to 46 percent in 2020 and 51 percent in 2035 and to maintain 68 percent of the electricity generation market as its demand grows.[10].

There are real and serious bright spots here, though.

The economic losses imposed by natural disasters and extreme weather have increased significantly in recent years, and greater global carbon emissions could potentially exacerbate these impacts. India has stated it has a desire to be a constructive player in Paris.

China is promoting green, low-carbon, climate resilient and sustainable development through institutional innovation, policy and action, according to China-US Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change signed on Sept 25 Xi’s trip stateside.

Harjeet Singh, ActionAid International’s global climate policy manager, called India’s INDC to be “extremely comprehensive”.

Climate change has already forced the resettlement of a quarter million people in China.

“So it is impossible to imagine the realization of the sustainable development goals or impossible to imagine that we have success in stopping climate change without China in the lead”, she said.

Germany on Monday pledged an investment of over €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in Indian solar power projects as Asia’s third-largest economy looks to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, Bloomberg reported. “However, we have come up with quite a few options for the country”, said another senior faculty.

Without this plan, India’s carbon emissions would have been on track to increase seven-fold, instead of threefold, from 2005 to 2030.

Amongst other measures, the world’s biggest polluters have agreed to strictly control public investment for projects that are highly polluting and carbon intensive, both at home and overseas.

New Commitments to Low-Carbon Business. While India has modestly raised the costs of using coal through a tax, it is unlikely that this, on its own, breaks up India’s attachment to the dirty fuel. The organiser and chairman of the conference was the Supreme Court judge Lord Carnwath, a fervent believer in man-made climate change, who has worked with the Prince of Wales for more than 20 years, and with UNEP since 2002.