India
Defies the Dictator: Accuses Obama of ‘Carbon Imperialism’
As Delhi
rushes to boost its coal generation to satisfy rocketing energy demands, John
Kerry’s decision to single out India as a “challenge” provokes fury (Telegraph)
– It’s rush hour in the world’s most polluted city, and just visible through
the dense blanket of smog is an electronic billboard informing motorists that
the air quality has dropped from “very poor” to “severe”. If this were Beijing
an emergency would be declared, with schools closed for the day and production
at factories halted. But here in Delhi, judging by faces barely visible behind
anti-pollution masks, nobody seems to have noticed. When John Kerry, the US
secretary of state, last week singled out the country most likely to pose a
“challenge” to climate change talks at Paris, it wasn’t China he named – it was
India. On top of the carbon-spewing traffic that clogs the Indian capital’s
streets, that challenge comes in the enormous form of the 1.5bn tonnes of coal
the country aims to extract annually by 2020. That is double its current output.
And if
there is one thing that Western countries can agree on, it is that dirty,
polluting coal needs to be phased out. Unfortunately, that isn’t something
India, already the world’s third-largest polluter, is about to do. Faced with a
rapidly growing population, a buoyant but fragile economy blighted by constant
power shortages and millions still living in abject poverty, India argues that
it cannot simply decide between renewable and non-renewable power – it needs
both.
So a
breakneck dash for coal is taking place across the country, where on average
one new mine is opening every month. As a result, India’s carbon dioxide
emissions, are expected to rise from 1.7bn tonnes in 2010 to 5.3bn – about a
sixth of all the carbon dioxide released in the world last year – by 2030.
And even
that is unlikely to satisfy India’s ravenous demand for energy. India has
announced efforts to boost renewables too. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will
launch a “solar alliance” of 122 solar-rich countries at Paris, seeking to
attract $100bn per year global investment in the technology. He has also spoken
of the need for new, cleaner methods of coal generation. In both cases, Mr Modi
seeks to remind the West of its promises to help finance the developing world’s
fledgling green industries – promises he says it has failed to honor.
Either
way, Mr Kerry’s “challenge” comment was received with fury in New Delhi.
Officials here are quick to point out that it still burns less coal than the US
or China – and besides, the West has been profiting from pumping out carbon for
decades. “Kerry’s comment is unwarranted and unfair. The attitude of some of
the developed countries is the challenge for the Paris conclusion,” said
Prakash Javadekar, India’s environment minister. India is “not in the habit of
taking any pressure from anybody”, he added. “This smacks of a ‘carbon
imperialism’,” wrote Arvind Subramanian, the Indian government’s chief economic
advisor. “And such imperialism on the part of advanced nations could spell
disaster for India and other developing countries.”
Of
course, it is not just the West that is worried by India’s coal rush. A group
of developing countries known as the ‘V20’ nations – mainly smaller, vulnerable
countries, many of them low-lying islands – are also applying pressure. Even
Beijing, on whom Delhi in the past could always rely to champion the cause of
rapid industrialization at any cost, has
begun to turn away from coal, as its economy pivots from manufacturing to
services.
China’s
enlarged middle-class has had some success in pressing for cleaner air, with
the government committing to targets to significantly reduce the use of coal
and increase that of renewables over the coming 15 years. But back in Dehli,
the capital of a country where one-in-four lack access to even basic
electricity – and where coal continues to provide the cheapest solution – the
prospects of a cleaner future seem murky at best.
http://www.teaparty.org/india-defies-dictator-accuses-obama-carbon-imperialism-132045/
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