December 5, 2007
Invitation CSE Press Briefing Climate Change: The Road to Bali and Beyond Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) re-looks at the key issues and concerns, and offers a fresh roadmap for the future |
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| CSE invites you to a Press Briefing to understand the science, economics and politics of climate change, as also India’s responses to it. And offers a framework for an effective climate convention for the future. Sunita Narain, director, CSE and Chandra Bhushan, associate director, CSE will deliver presentations. Day and date: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Venue: CSE office, Core 6-A, Fourth Floor, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi Time: 2.30-3.30 pm |
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Backgrounder: CSE Press Note Climate Change: Bali and after
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The 13th Conference of Parties (CoP) to the climate convention, underway in the paradise Indonesian island of Bali, has started with an advantage over previous such meetings: an overwhelming consensus that climate change is real. That it is happening and the time to act before temperatures spiral out of control is small. Urgent and drastic action, therefore, is needed.
Bali must be told in no uncertain terms that the impacts of climate change are here and now. The voices of the victims of climate change must be heard. The tropical cyclone Sidr, which ripped through Bangladesh, left thousands dead and millions homeless. They died because the rich failed to contain emissions necessary for their growth. This is the challenge of climate science. It is clear that while we will never be able to make absolute predictions or direct correlations between events that we see around us and the warming that is now inevitable, there is enough evidence to make connections. For instance, we know that climate change will lead to intensification of tropical cyclone events. We also know that rainfall in our world will become more variable – devastating for people dependent on rain-fed agriculture. We can already see the rapid melting of glaciers which will threaten water security in large parts of the country. This is our message to Bali and after: Get serious; get real. India must take the lead in this at Bali to draw the roadmap that will enable us to live beyond the 13th CoP. Rich must take action, not give small change: India must insist that that the rich world (including climate renegades like the US) need to reduce emissions drastically – 30 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. There is no comparison between the emissions of countries like India or even China and rich big emitters of the world. There is a stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, built up over centuries in the process of creating nations’ wealth. This is the natural debt of nations. Calculated in terms of total emissions of each country since the early 1900s, every living American is found to carry a natural debt burden of more than 1,050 tonne of carbon dioxide. In comparison, every living Chinese has a natural debt of 68 tonne, and every living Indian, only 25 tonne. The current emission divide is even more. The per capita emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel combustion in the US stands at about 20 tonne per year -- in China, it is 4 tonne and in India, 1.1 tonne. The rich world needs to repay its natural debt. It needs to reduce its emissions, to make space so that the poorer nations can grow. The emerging rich and poor can grow differently: India must also put forward a plan for itself and other countries to find low-carbon growth strategies without compromising their right to develop. Countries like China and India can invest in leapfrog technologies to avoid pollution and increase energy efficiency. The emerging rich and poor can grow differently: India must also put forward a plan for itself and other countries to find low-carbon growth strategies without compromising their right to develop. Countries like China and India can invest in leapfrog technologies to avoid pollution and increase energy efficiency. Reform and redesign the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to make it effective: Currently, the biggest flaw in the CDM is that it is designed to get the cheapest emission reductions options for the industrialised world. As a result, the price of CERs – the certified emission reduction unit used in this transaction -- has never reflected the cost of renewable and other high technology options. In fact, ‘additionality’ clauses in CDM provide disincentives for governments in the South to drive policies for clean energy or production. A case for equal per capita entitlements: In the given circumstances, effective emission cuts are only possible if we create rights and entitlements of each nation to the atmosphere, so that future responsibilities are clearly demarcated. Way back in 1991, CSE had proposed the concept of equal per capita entitlements to greenhouse gas emissions. In this model, the countries would be assigned entitlements based on their population. The national entitlement could then be the basis of a global trading system. Countries with excess entitlements could use the trading mechanism to sell emission quotas and invest in low- or zero-carbon technologies. This will provide a framework of climate justice and effective action. But as much as the world needs to design a system of equity between nations, a similar system needs to be in place within nations. The rich in India almost emit as much as the rich elsewhere. It is the poor in India, with no access to energy, who provide us the breathing space. India’s urban-industrial sector is energy-intensive and wasteful, while its rural sector is energy-poor and frugal. Assigned on an equal per capita basis, India’s entitlements, thus, would mean that the country’s rich pay its poor for excess energy use. |
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