India has been doing the best it can in the given circumstances to tackle the growing menace of climate change. It has to take care of its growth needs and push its desire to cut emissions to levels that are really meaningful
India has a long history and tradition of harmonious co-existence between man and nature. Human beings here have regarded fauna and flora as part of their family. This is part of our heritage and manifests in our lifestyle and traditional practices. We represent a culture that calls our planet ‘Mother Earth’. The Yajur Veda, one of the magnum opus propounds: “Unto Heaven be Peace, Unto the Sky and the Earth be Peace, Peace be unto the Water, Unto the Herbs and Trees be Peace.”
The Prime Minister of India has echoed the same belief and faith and thus argued in favour of global climate justice, as poor nations needed “room to grow”, at the Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris. Almost 200 Governments are seeking an agreement that will bind both the rich and the poor to limit greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020 to try to stave off the worst effects of global warming on earth’s climate. India is in some ways a more fitting champion for the poor.
And so, many developing nations are backing India’s stance. “They (India) are doing it for all of us”, said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh. India can also argue that it is doing its bit to promote renewable energy.
Climate change is a major challenge for developing countries like India that face large-scale climate variability and are exposed to enhanced risks from climate change. Few countries in the world are as vulnerable to the effects of climate change as India is, with its vast population that is dependent on the growth of its agrarian economy, its expansive coastal areas and the Himalayan region and islands. It also entails trade-offs with economic growth and social development in the short run that need to be factored in the policy matrix, where eradication of poverty is one of the foremost priorities.
India accounts for 2.4 per cent of the world’s surface area, but supports around 17.5 per cent of the world population. It houses the largest proportion of global poor (30 per cent), around 24 per cent of the global population without access to electricity (304 million), about 30 per cent of the global population relying on solid biomass for cooking and 92 million people without access to safe drinking water. The average annual energy consumption in India in 2011 was only 0.6 tonnes of oil equivalent per capita as compared to a global average of 1.88 tonnes per capita.
It may also be noted that no country in the world has been able to achieve a Human Development Index of 0.9 or more without an annual energy availability of at least four tonnes per capita. With a HDI of 0.586 and global rank of 135, India has a lot to do to provide a dignified life to its population and meet their rightful aspirations. India is a developing country with a per capita GDP (nominal) of around $1,408 per annum. However, this doesn’t reflect the wide disparities amongst its people and regions. Around 363 million people (30 per cent of the population) live in poverty, about 1.77 million people are houseless and 4.9 per cent of the population (aged 15 years and above) are unemployed. The per capita electricity consumption stands low at 917 kWh, which is barely one-third of the world’s average consumption.
A recent national socio-economic census indicates that economic and social deprivations are much higher in terms of availability of proper houses, access to education, lifeline availability of energy, and stable sources of income. This is more so in rural India where 48 per cent of the households lack basic socio-economic services and were categorised as deprived. India also has the largest cattle and buffalo population in the world of about 300 million, which faces multiple challenges including diseases, inadequate supply of fodder etc. as a result of changing climate.
India’s share of CO2 in the total emissions in the world is very insignificant in per capita terms. The per capita emission of an Indian citizen is just 1.7 tonnes in 2011, according to World Bank data — level with countries such as Belize or Armenia, and far below China’s 6.7 tonnes and just a 10th of those of the US.
In recognition of the growing problem of climate change, India declared a voluntary goal of reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20 per cent to 25 per cent, over 2005 levels, by 2020, despite having no binding mitigation obligations as per the Convention.
As a result, the emission intensity of our GDP has decreased by 12 per cent between 2005 and 2010. It is a matter of satisfaction that United Nations Environment Programme, in its Emission Gap Report 2014, has recognised India as one of the countries that are on course to achieving their voluntary goals.