Perpetuating the Poverty of Developing Countries

This seems to be the line of thought during the recent climate change meeting in Copenhegan. Otherwise, how else can the developed world including US ask countries like China and India to commit to emission cuts that puts disproportionate burden on developing countries?

The stakes for the Copenhagen summit have been building up over the last few weeks, but with China declaring a voluntary deduction in carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020, the pressure on reluctant players like the US to act and commit just got higher. The Chinese move to voluntarily reduce its carbon intensity days ahead of the summit in Denmark has large implications. One, it will be difficult for developed countries like the US and Obama’s Congress to oppose commitments to reduce greenhouse gases.

China and India have often been cited as examples of countries that are unwilling to play their part in addressing these global concerns. Second, China has made it clear that it would go ahead with reductions in carbon intensity only on its own terms as per the requirements of its economic needs. This will come as a major boost to India as it echoes New Delhi’s stated position on carbon emissions.

Close on the heels of China, India has announced its decision to set a target of cutting down its carbon intensity by 20-25%, domestically. This is achievable even with a GDP growth of 8-9% with the application of right technologies and fiscal measures that encourage energy efficiency. The crucial differentiator in the stand taken by China and India is that of setting an individual target that is not bound by an international or external cap.

While India with its 1 billion plus population is rising to break the shackles of poverty, the developed world cannot take the excuse of climate change to perpetually keep Nation like India remain poor. It is so easy to see how lavishly people in countries like US are contributing to global warming. In stark comparison, 60% of Indian population still lives in villages with hardly the scope to add any meaningful contribution to climate change

Majority of India is still not integrated with the world economy. The lifestyle is so simple that almost all life sustaining task are still done with simple and green means. More than 80% of the Indian population still don’t use toilet papers and prefer water thus saving millions of tree each year. More than 60% of Indian lives their life without using much of electricity and gasoline powered automobiles. The public transport in India vastly reduces our contribution to global warming. Our eating habits are far simpler than the energy hugging food habits of the western world. Till almost 15 years back we had hardly use plastic bags to carry groceries. Even today the majority of population living in villages barely uses any plastic for day to day living.

Lifestyles in these developed countries still remain largely unchanged as the wealthy continue to live in large villas, drive around in gas-guzzling SUVs and use energy-intensive equipment for daily household chores. India may be the world’s sixth-biggest greenhouse gas producer, but it has a per-head emission of just 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide — 66th in the world — whereas US is the fifth in the world with a per-head emission of 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent. This is precisely 10 times that of India, which is expected to have the same caps on emissions as developed countries like the US. This is totally against the principle of ‘differentiated responsibility’.

India with its aspiration to bring its population out of poverty has in fact seen a decline in carbon intensity over the last decade. It is probably one of the few countries in the world that has seen the reverse trend with development. The solar mission, national water mission, sustainable habitat mission and urban transport mission are among the basket of programs that the government and India Inc are working on to meet some of its carbon-intensity reduction targets. More importantly, India has made it clear that it is not ready to subject itself to international verification. The targets set by the country will be in accordance to its resources and social and economic priorities.

We need to continue on the path of sustained development without mimicking the habits of Industrialized Nations and yes, voluntary make effort to curb emissions and take other voluntary steps to minimize our contribution to global warming. This cannot be dictated by the Western world. Climate change cannot be addressed by perpetuating the poverty of the developing countries.