India is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and falls under the non-Annexe I countries, or developing countries group. This implies that India does not have any binding commitments to reduce the level of its carbon emissions. Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.” [1]

This said India is currently one of fastest growing emitters of green house gasses (GHG) with a 65% increase in emissions between 1990-2005 and projected increase of another 70% by 2020. Added to that India is presently the fifth largest GHG emitter (absolute terms) and contributes 5% of global emissions.[2]

The Government of India has committed itself to vastly improving the country’s human development indices by 2031-2032. In order to do so, the country must average economic growth of at least 8 percent per annum for the next twenty-five years. According to a report released by the Planning Commission of India, if India is to sustain an 8 percent level of growth, then it will need to increase its primary energy supply by at least 3 or 4 times and its electricity supply by a factor of 5 to 7 by 2031-2032. Likewise, power generation capacity will have to increase from 120,000 MW to 780,000 MW. [3]

In addition The Government of India has undertaken to completely meet India’s growing electricity needs by 2012 so that shortage of energy supply does not impair the growth and development needs of our booming economy and industry, as well as to electrify all villages in India under a time bound programme. As currently renewable and alternate energy sources are not mainstream sources, the government aims to achieve its goal through major investment in thermal and hydro- electric power (50,000 MW Hydro and 1,00,000 MW Thermal projects have been planned). [4]

The energy sector is already the biggest contributor to GHG emissions in India and the above demands, while being a legitimate and necessary to improve the quality of life of vast sectors of the Indian public and ensure economic and social development, will lead to an inevitable increase in GHG emissions in coming years. This is especially as the majority of the energy needs will be met through fossil fuel based sources and coal in particular.

Given this rapid growth in emission rates and the magnitude of likely future emissions The United States of America and other countries from the West are pressurizing rapidly developing countries like India and China to accept binding emission reduction targets. They claim that these countries will soon overtake the developed world in carbon emissions and hence should also shoulder the burden of reducing these emissions. They want India and China to take on such commitments in the post-Kyoto regime.

The Indian position on this issue has been quite rigid and consistent. The Government of India has long argued that while climate change is a pressing global problem that needs to be solved, for developing countries like India, the prime goal is that of development and securing a good standard of living for the large number of poor and vulnerable peoples. In the words of the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, Shyam Saran, “Developing Countries have the responsibility to engage in sustainable development but their emission reductions will be the result of sustainable development, not the other way round.”[5] In another speech Shyam Saran states, “…ability to adapt to climate change is also linked to the level of development. Richer and more advanced states are better equipped to cope with climate change than are poorer countries. Therefore, development is the best form of adaptation, even if development in a developing country results, in the foreseeable future, to an increase in GHG emissions.”[6] The message is clear – development first.

The arguments India uses to support this position are centered around the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities (as is with the UNFCCC) and equity. These arguments can be categorized under three broad heads.

1. Historical Responsibility
2. Per-capita emissions
3. Technology transfer

Historic Responsibility

GHG stay in the atmosphere for long durations of time after they are emitted. According to the IPCC “about 50% of a CO₂ increase will be removed from the atmosphere within 30 years, and a further 30% will be removed within a few centuries. The remaining 20% may stay in the atmosphere for many thousands of years.”[7] Other estimates claim that, “If all recoverable fossil fuels were burnt up using today’s technologies, after 1,000 years the air would still hold around a third to a half of the CO₂ emissions.”[8] The bottom line is that GHG emitted today will cause problems not just today but possibly hundreds or even thousands of years from now.

Given this, the Indian Government argues that India has played a insignificant role in bringing about the present problem, which they say, is caused by emissions of the developed countries during their process of industrialization. This claim is backed up by statistics. As can be seen from the following figure between 1850 and 2000 India contributed only 2% of the cumulative, energy related CO2 emissions, while the United States of America contributed 30% and the European Union 27%. Thus, India feels that the burden of solving the problem should also rest with these developed countries of the West.

Per-capita Emissions

One major point of difference between the developed nations and India is over how to measure GHG emissions. The United States of America talks in terms of absolute emissions, while India says emissions should be measured on a per-capita basis. The reasoning behind this argument is given in the adjoining box.

When viewed from the perspective of per-capita emissions, India’s case seems to become stronger. Though it might be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, according to a WWF report, India’s per capita emissions of GHG were just 1.8 tonnes compared 24 tonnes per capita by the United States.[9] If we look at carbon dioxide levels this is even less. In 2005 India’s per capita CO2 emissions were 1.1 tonnes which, as can be seen from the following diagram is significantly lower than the global average and much lower than that of the United States which is close to 20 tonnes CO2 per-capita. [10] The per capita emissions argument is extremely compelling when viewed from the development perspective. The developing countries argue that their per emissions are due to their efforts to develop and thus as the process continues with more production of goods and services and more and more people get access to electricity, heating, modern transport etc., the per capita emissions will go up corresponding to the increase in living standards. Developed countries on the other hand have already achieved very high levels of both development and quality of life. Thus, the fact that developed countries have higher per capita emissions is an indication that their emissions are now due to increased production and consumption of luxuries and not due to legitimate development needs as is the case of developing countries.

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Given this, India believes that international climate change agreements should set targets for convergence of per capita emissions between developed and developing countries and not ask developing countries to forgo development by imposing emission reduction targets on them. This would be a more equitable arrangement.

There, however, is one serious drawback with this line of reasoning. While India calls for per capita measurement of emissions globally, internally it does not analyse where the emissions are coming from with regard to different socio-economic groups. Greenpeace released a report called “Is India Hiding Behind the Poor” on 12 November 2007 that highlights this issue. According to the study, “The richest consumer classes produce 4.5 times more CO2 than the poorest class, and almost 3 times more than the average.” The report further states, “…the richest income class in this study, earning more than 30,000 rupees a month, produce slightly less than the global average CO2 emissions of 5 tonnes, this amount already exceeds the sustainable global average CO2 emissions of 2.5 tonnes per capita that needs to be reached to limit global warming below 2 degrees centigrade.”[12]

Though using per capita emissions is a fair and equitable yardstick, especially given the urgent development need of many poor countries, this principle needs to be applied both internally and externally. The Indian Government should therefore take measures to control wasteful, non-development related emissions.

Technology Transfer

As the above discussion has illustrated, India believes in a “polluter pays” principle based on historical emissions and equity of per capita emissions. The message is India cannot afford to limit emissions at the expense of growth needs. As need for growth is a given, if the developed world wants India to reduce emissions they must transfer financial and technological resources that would allow India to pursue environmentally sustainable strategies of growth.

India’s position on this matter was articulated once again by the PM’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, Shyam Saran; “For technology transfer, we have argued that since climate- friendly technologies are in the nature of public goods, addressing an urgent global challenge, the IPR regime in respect to such technologies must be adjusted to enable them to be adopted by developing countries at affordable prices. A global Climate Change Venture Capital Fund could be set up, which could purchase patents on such technologies and enable their transfer to developing countries. We have also suggested an international collaborative effort among major developed and developing countries to promote new climate friendly technologies. This could be called CLEAN-NET.” Further he adds, “The responsibility to support sustainable development strategies in developing countries, through the transfer of financial resources and technology from developed countries, is not linked to any conditionalities.”[13]

Government Policies

This does not mean that the Indian Government is not doing anything about climate change. India is a signatory to both the UNFCCC and the Kyoto protocol and takes active part in multi-lateral negotiations on climate change. An example is India’s membership of the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate 2005. Under this partnership Foreign, Environment and Energy Ministers from partner countries agreed to co-operate on development and transfer of technology, which enables reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Ministers agreed to a Charter, Communique and Work Plan that outline a “private-public taskforcess to address climate change, energy security and air pollution.”[14]

In addition, India has submitted its first National Communication on Climate Change (NATCOM I) and is currently working on NATCOM II.

With regards to policies, India has in place many environmental laws, which attempt to reduce pollution and environmental damage, even though not all were framed specifically to tackle climate change. Some of these policies/regulations are mentioned in the adjoining box. In India, a major concern is securing compliance to these policies.

Some key policies are

Remote Village Electrification Programme (RVE) 2001: Electrify all the remote villages and remote hamlets through non-conventional energy sources such as solar energy, small hydro-power, biomass, wind energy, hybrid systems, etc. The Programme aims at bringing the benefits of electricity to people living in the most backward and deprived regions of the country.

Energy Conservation Act 2001: The Indian Parliament passed The Energy Conservation Act 2001, in September 2001. This Act requires large energy consumers to adhere to energy consumption norms; new buildings to follow the Energy Conservation Building Code; and appliances to meet energy performance standards and to display energy consumption labels. The Act also created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to implement the provisions of the Act.

Integrated Energy Policy 2006: Released in August 2006 it addresses all aspects of energy, including energy security, access and availability, affordability and pricing, efficiency and the environment.

In relation to renewable energy, the policy proposed:

• The phase-out of capital subsidies by the end of the 10th Plan linked to creation of renewable grid power capacity;
• Requiring power regulators to seek alternative incentive structures that encourage utilities to integrate wind, small hydro, cogeneration and so on into their systems, and the linking of all such incentives to energy generated as opposed to capacity created;
• Requiring power regulators to mandate feed-in laws for renewable energy, where appropriate, as provided under the Electricity Act 2003.

Labelling Programme for Appliances 2006: A star rating based labeling programme has been introduced for four commonly used consumer goods that indicate their energy efficiency. The goods covered as of now are; fluorescent tube-lights, air conditioners, refrigerators, distribution transformers. Introduced and managed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) these ratings are meant to be a guide to consumers so they make an informed decision. The ratings are backed by an aggressive media campaign that aims at increasing awareness by informing customers of the cost benefits of energy efficient appliances.

Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) 2007: The ECBC was developed in 2006 and issued May 2007. It is not mandatory the first three years, and will become so in 2010, to allow the necessary implementation capacity to be developed. The code will be mandatory for all new buildings (commercial buildings or complexes) with a connected load of 500kW or more, or a contract demand of 600 kVA or greater. It will also apply to buildings with a conditioned floor space of 1 000m2 or greater.

The code sets minimum requirements for building envelope components, lighting, HVAC, electrical system, water heating and pumping systems. There would be three ways of being compliant with the ECBC. First, through a prescriptive approach, i.e. all minimum standards for separate components must be met. Second, the envelope and lighting system would be assessed through a systems performance criteria, while other components would have to meet the minimum requirements. Third, setting the whole building target energy use and trading off between systems (Energy cost budget method).

State and municipal governments must implement the code, while state governments are allowed to modify the code if necessary to account for local climatic conditions. In February 2008 an ECBC tip sheet and Technology atlas were distributed to developers, architects, engineers and other building energy efficiency professionals.

Solar Power Generation Based Incentive 2008: In January 2008, the federal minister responsible for renewable energy announced that the Indian government would provide a subsidy for solar power plants to help develop renewable energy infrastructure. The incentives, for a period of 10 years, will be over and above any financial assistance provided by the states.

Generation based incentives for wind power 2008: In July 2008, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched a new generation-based incentive scheme for wind power production. The scheme is designed to promote investment in new and large independent wind power producers, to fulfil a target of securing 10 500 MW of new wind power capacity by 2012.

Energy Conservation Awards: The Ministry of Power instituted National Energy Conservation Awards, coordinated by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, to recognize industrial units that have made special efforts to reduce energy consumption. In the first five years, the participating industrial units collectively saved 2397 million units of electrical energy; 9067 kilo litre of furnace oil; 2.76 Mt of coal and 11,585 million cubic metre of gas per year, resulting in substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

National Action Plan on Climate Change: On 30 June 2008, India released its first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlining existing and future policies and programmes directed at climate change mitigation and adaptation. The plan outlines eight “national missions” running up to 2017, and ministries are directed to submit detailed implementation plans to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change by December 2008. Several target energy use, promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as improved research capacity on climate change issues. Other missions target water efficiency, agriculture, forestation, and ecosystem conservation.[15]

Exogenous Factors:

Apart from the globally accepted fact that there is an urgent need to take radical and bold steps to combat climate change, and the pressure put on India by developed countries, there are a couple of other factors that have greatly increased the visibility of climate change in Indian consciousness and policy dialogue.

The first and most important is India’s quest for energy security. India depends on imports for 30 percent of its total energy supply and this number is only set to increase. Government officials predict that given the current energy mix as much as 66% of our coal, 90% of our oil and nearly 60% of our natural gas requirements have to be imported.[16]

This high dependence on imports to meet energy demands makes the question of energy security extremely important. Any shortage in supply or drastic rise in costs of imports can have severe consequences for India’s energy starved economy and put a brake on its economic growth and development. This need was highlighted by the shortage India faced when the Gulf War broke out, reducing India’s supply to one-third overnight. A more recent reminder was the recent skyrocketing of global oil prices.

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Though in the short run there will be continued dependence on fossil fuels to meet increasing demands. The Indian Government realises that there is a need to increase energy efficiency and encourage the spread of renewable and alternative energy sources so that they are free from the uncertainties of externally supplied fossil fuel sources.

In fact, as the statement in the box above shows, the Indian government is clear that the policies regarding renewable and alternate energy sources is as much to do with energy efficiency and development as they are to do with climate change, if not more.

The second factor that has brought climate change to the fore was the recently concluded Nuclear Deal with the United States of America. One of the main arguments the Government gave in favour of the Deal was that it would to greater use of commercial nuclear energy that would help meet India’s goal of energy independence while reducing GHG emissions, thereby help combat climate change. The controversial nature of the Nuclear Deal led to a lot of publicity and debate on all issues involved, including the Government’s claim that the Deal was beneficial from a climate change point of view.

Additional Reading:

Excerpts: Speeches by Shri Shyam Saran

FOOTNOTES

• 1.  http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php↑
• 2.  All stats from: Climate Change Mitigation Measures in India: International Brief 2, September 2008; PEW Centre on Global Climate Change (http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/India-FactSheet-09-08.pdf)↑
• 3.  Draft Report of the Expert Committee on Integrated Energy Policy, Planning Commission, Government of India, December 2005.↑
• 4.  India 2008: A Reference Annual, page 255↑
• 5.  Shyam Saran, ‘From Bali to Copenhagen – Tackling Climate Chagne with Renewable Solutions’, Bled Forum, September 1, 2008↑
• 6.  Shyam Saran, ‘Climate Change: Will India’s Growth Story Confront a New Constraint?’, India International Centre, July 26, 2008↑
• 7. IPCC IV Assessment Report↑
• 8.  Nature Reports Climate Change Published online: 20 November 2008 | doi:10.1038/climate.2008.122; http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0812/full/climate.2008.122.html#B3↑
• 9.  WWF Climate Scorecards: Comparison of the climate performance of the G8 countries, Ecofys GmbH, Germany: Niklas Höhne, n.hoehne@ecofys.de; Sina Wartmann, s.wartmann@ecofys.de; Wina Graus, w.graus@ecofys.nl, July 2005↑
• 10.  DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR THE WORLD BANK GROUP, 30 September 2008 (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTCC/Resources/407863-1219339233881/DCCSFReporttoDevelopmentCommitteeOct122008.pdf)↑
• 11.  National carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita. (2005). In UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. Retrieved 17:28, March 17, 2009 from http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/national_carbon_dioxide_co2_emissions_per_capita.↑
• 12. Is India hiding behind the poor? A new report from Greenpeace on climate injustice, 12 November 2007 (http://www.greenpeace.org/india/news/hiding-behind-the-poor)↑
• 13. Shyam Saran, ‘Climate Change: From Back Room to Board Room – What Indian Business Needs to Know About India’s Approach to Multilateral Negotiations on Climate Change”, 21 April 2008↑
• 14.  International Energy Agency: http://www.iea.org/textbase/pm/?mode=cc&id=3878&action=detail↑
• 15.  Section on ‘Key Policies’ taken from information provided on the International Energy Agency Database; http://www.iea.org/textbase/pm/?mode=cc&action=view&country=India; http://www.iea.org/textbase/pm/?mode=weo&action=view&country=India↑
• 16.  Speech by Shyam Saran, PM’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, http://www.mea.gov.in/cgi-bin/db2www/meaxpsite/coverpage.d2w/coverpg?sec=ss&filename=speech/2008/07/26ss01.htm↑
• 17.  Shyam Saran, ‘Climate Change: From Back Room to Board Room – What Indian Business Needs to Know About India’s Approach to Multilateral Negotiations on Climate Change”, 21 April 2008↑