Climate change and Delhi

After a number of landmarks - including the heavy victory in the May 2014 polls – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped shape India’s foreign policy by frequent visits to different countries including Japan and Australia. But his landmark US visit, where a deep understanding between him and President Obama was developed, got the most attention of the media.
India and the US have never been this close in the past. The Indian prime minister has achieved yet another landmark of climate accord with the US. During President Obama’s visit to India both leaders seemed very friendly with each other. Dim skies and a percentage of the world’s filthiest air served as the background to New Delhi’s Republic Day festivals, which President Obama had attended on the invitation of Prime Minister Modi.
The US and India are the largest operational democracies, with different trajectories of evolution. The much waited Obama visit to India puts climate change in the limelight due to its universal importance over the years. Regarding US interest in South Asia, Obama’s visit shaped a new agenda keeping in mind the post-cold war era and emerging competition with China and a new climate deal with India beside one with China. In this context the US has started to build strong economic and strategic ties with the emerging Indian market.
Climate change ranks high when it comes to India-US relations. The focus is primarily on technology and finance partnership in the field of clean energy. US officials had anticipated an agreement on climate change that would be a small but significant achievement in terms of engagement with big carbon emitting nations – though not similar to the agreement with China in November last year.
Some experts believe that India and China are going through different phases of development. India’s energy shortage is astonishing. However, American and Indian authorities have been attempting to achieve an arrangement that would relax obligation concerns and make room for organisations to support India’s nuclear industry. In any case, regardless of the possibility of reaching an accord, the proposed atomic force reactors will take several years to finish.
The climate negotiations are now finalised as a five-year MoU on aspects like ‘climate change, energy and security’ but without a major breakthrough at the moment. Both the leaders emphasised the initiation of future work plans at the earliest possible time to tackle this issue. The US president also emphasised meeting energy goals efficiently and on time, including the 100GW of solar power by 2022. This climate accord will likely enable India to cut its carbon emissions by adopting innovative and efficient energy measures.
In a joint press conference, Modi said, “For Obama and me, clean and renewable energy is a personal and national priority. We discussed our ambitious national efforts and goals to increase the use of clean and renewable energy. We agreed to enhance our excellent and innovative partnership in this”.
President Obama sought Prime Minister Modi’s help at the global climate talks in Paris later this year. These agreements with China and India are crucial steps towards the Paris UN climate agreement later this year. They will cut carbon emission by replacing coal-burning with nuclear energy projects leading to a reduction in global warming.
“The prime minister and I made a personal commitment to work together to pursue a strong global climate agreement in Paris”, said Obama. “As I indicated to him, I think India’s voice is very important on this issue.”
Earlier this month Secretary of State John Kerry tried to pave the way to reach an agreement on climate change before the president’s visit but failed to put things in perspective to win over Indian authorities. However, recently Indian authorities have been more keen about the development status of their country as the 300 million population has no access to electricity.
In the recent Lima climate talks nearly 200 nations agreed agreed to a reduction in burning coal, oil and gas – all of which lead to global warming. The Lima talks concluded with an agreement among big and developing nations to write a comprehensive plan with legislations regarding carbon emissions.
India is extremely vulnerable to climate change – which will affect food security, urbanisation and migration in densely populated cities. According to Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre, carbon emissions of India per capita are 1.7 metric tons.
Air pollution is the fifth leading cause of death in India, leading to 67,000 premature deaths in 2010, according to a study by the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based research group. And by 2050, 40 million people in India could die from rising sea levels, according to the Center for Global Development’s Climate Vulnerability Index.
Despite the leadership’s serious concerns over the climate change deal, coal will account for over 60 percent in India’s power sector until 2030. Solar power and renewable energy will increase from six percent to 18 percent according to the government’s renewable energy plans.
The beginning of an important development between the US and India over climate change concerns will bring forth small but significant progress in the Paris meeting. These shifts between heavy carbon producing nations can definitely help in tackling the climate change issue.
The writer is a freelance columnist.
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