India played an admirable role in shaping the climate change agreement in Paris. Now, the Government has to focus on the domestic front and ensure that the country meets its ambitious Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
India played a major role in clinching the climate change agreement in Paris this year. Conciliatory approach, flexibility, statesmanship and some plainspeaking by India cajoled the developed world to tone down its rhetoric on the role of emerging economies of the developed world.
Indian negotiators succeeded in retaining the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and also got the two Indian concerns of climate justice and carbon space incorporated into the declaration. Ever since the Kyoto Protocol, this was one of the best diplomatic attempts and the Indian leadership deserves credit for it.
Now, let us examine the flip side of the deal and what it means for the people of India. The Articles of the deal are to be monitored periodically as they aim to curtail the rise of temperature to below two degree Celsius. The deal expects all the participating countries to go for clean sources of energy and fulfill their commitments made in the nationally announced emission cuts. It talks about sharing technology for clean energy, adaptations and mitigation, and enjoins the developed world to commit to a one billion dollar annual fund with increasing contribution for the benefit of the developing world, particularly the least developed countries to combat climate change.
The Paris deal includes non-party stakeholders such as the civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities and other sub-national authorities, to scale up the effort as well as support actions to reduce emissions and/or build resilience and decrease vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change. To demonstrate these efforts, the declaration has created the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action platform.
This writer would have been happy if the declaration evolved a road map for greater global participation and made it an integral part of the measurable parameters, asking national Governments to submit a plan of action similar to the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.
Unless we involve the larger civil society in the climate deal, we cannot achieve the target of keeping the rise in global temperature at two degree Celsius below pre-industrial levels. Various studies have warned that the world is heading for more than 3.5 degree Celsius rise even before 2100.
In international diplomacy, the word ‘possibility’ is a buzz word for negotiators, as by using this word, they can give nothing and gain nothing. Yet, they are hopeful for further negotiations for their bosses and the opposite party. This document fits in the realm of ‘possibility’. The onus of turning this possibility to real achievement and accomplishment is with the world leaders now — particularly in the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada from the developed world and China and India from the developing world.
The declaration will have to face the test of time at home and abroad. Given the fate of the Kyoto Protocol and the protracted negotiations at the World Trade Organisation and other multilateral forums, the mandarins at the Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the Ministry for External Affairs, the Ministry for Power, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the State forest departments will have to burn the midnight oil and strategise to meet the target of reducing India’s emissions to 33-35 per cent by 2030.
Also, they have to ensure that the Paris declaration does not end up as a lofty paper, meeting the fate of other resolutions adopted by the world bodies. The suspicion in the civil society about the deal Paris deal is still very much there, given the attitude and actions of the developed world.
In the declaration, developing nations, particularly India, have gone the extra mile but the developed world has not done much. There is no firm commitment on the transfer of technology at preferential rates by shunning profitability, and no major commitment for climate finance for developing countries. The developed world is also reluctant to acknowldge that it is the main culprit for rising the global temperature.
The draft declaration in its first few lines states “that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet and thus requires the widest possible cooperation by all countries, and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emission”.
People will be closely watching how this avowed pledge of climatic amelioration is fulfilled by the developed world, specially in providing technologies and finance to the developing world. Climate change threatens the survival of humanity itself and much will depend on how best the nations can meet their Intended Nationally Declared Contributions.
For example, rather than making Parliament dysfunctional, lawmakers in India could have discussed the Paris accord. Also, the Union Government has an opportunity to set right the distortions of the last 20 years during which its institutions of forestry and environment received the least priority of the erstwhile Planning Commission and State Governments. One of the important tasks for Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar is to see that the 14th Finance Commission award of listing forests as one of the criteria for devolution of finance is implemented sincerely by the States. There are reports that this is not being done at the moment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Javadekar need to meet the challenge by rising beyond bureaucratic briefs and putting the desired institutional reforms on fast track.
(The writer is chairman of Foundation for Integrated Resources Management. He is former Principal Secretary, Government of Tripura, and former Director General of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education)