When the debate on the outcome of the Copenhagen climate conference took place in the Rajya Sabha,the Opposition charged the government with having slid back from the earlier commitment made to Parliament,and said that the countrys sovereignty had been compromised.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh admitted that India had deviated from its original stand on verification of emission mitigation actions,but asserted that this would not affect Indias sovereignty. Responding to the charge that rich nations had been allowed to move away from Kyoto Protocol obligations,the minister explained that India,having tied up with BASIC (Brazil,South Africa,India and China),had to go by the consensus while dealing with the US. He pointed out that while President Obama came with four words: review or scrutiny or verification or assessment,the BASIC groups position was consultation and analysis within clearly laid guidelines that would not affect national sovereignty. The minister also clarified that it had been China,not India,which was the point of concern and whose verification reporting had been
questioned by the international community.
Both the debate and the media commentary around Copenhagen failed to pay attention to the following passage from the joint statement of the prime minister and the US president after their Washington summit.
Recognising that energy security,food security,climate change are interlinked,and that eliminating poverty and ensuring sustainable development and a clean energy future are among the foremost global objectives,the two leaders agreed to enter into a Green Partnership to address these global challenges. The two leaders affirmed their intention to promote the full,effective and sustained implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in accordance with the Bali Action Plan. Recognising their special role in promoting a successful and substantive outcome at the UNFCC 15th Conference of Parties at Copenhagen in December 2009,they reaffirmed their intention to work together bilaterally and with all other countries for an agreed outcome at that meeting.
The two leaders also affirmed that the Copenhagen outcome must be comprehensive and cover mitigation,adaptation,finance and technology,and in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,it should reflect emission reduction targets of developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries.
There should be full transparency through appropriate processes as to the implementation of aforesaid mitigation actions. The outcome should further reflect the need for substantially scaled-up financial resources to support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries,in particular,for the poorest and most vulnerable. It should also include measures for promoting technology development,dissemination and transfer and capacity building,including consideration of a centre or a network of centres to support and stimulate climate innovation.
India and the US,consistent with their national circumstances,resolved to take significant national mitigation actions that will strengthen the worlds ability to combat climate change.
Recognising the need to create the clean energy economy of the 21st century,Prime Minister Singh and President Obama decided to launch a Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative. The goal would be to improve the lives of the people of both countries by developing and improving access to technologies that make our energy cleaner,affordable and more efficient. The initiative will include cooperation in wind and solar energy,second generation bio-fuels,unconventional gas,energy efficiency,and clean-coal technologies including carbon capture and storage. The success of this initiative is expected to enhance the ability of India and the US to provide new economic opportunities for their people and create new clean energy jobs.
The two leaders had already agreed that the Copenhagen outcome should reflect emission reduction targets of developed countries and the nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries. They further said that there should be full transparency through appropriate processes as to the implementation of the aforesaid mitigation actions. It is obvious that even in the Washington summit,the need for transparency of mitigation actions of large developing emitters of greenhouse gases was a matter of mutual concern for India and the US. China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases today
It should be noted that during the summit,Manmohan Singh and Obama have envisaged a partnership between India and US not only in dealing with the development of an international agreement on climate change but in launching a Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative,the success of which will provide new economic opportunities for their people and create new clean energy jobs. Ultimately the global response to climate change has to be in terms of new technologies for clean energy generation.
In fact it calls for a new industrial revolution,far more extensive and lifestyle-altering than the information revolution.
When he was still a presidential candidate,Barack Obama wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 23,2008,saying that we should be working hand-in-hand to tap into the creativity and dynamism of our entrepreneurs,engineers and scientists to promote development of alternative sources of clean energy. Imagine our two democracies in action: Indian laboratories and industry collaborating with American laboratories and industry to discover innovative solutions to todays energy problems. That is the kind of new partnership I would like to build with India as President.
This new industrial revolution in response to climate change can ensure that the US retains its technological pre-eminence for a long time to come,and partnership between India and the US can provide us the same opportunity for rapid growth as US partnership with China did in the eighties and nineties with respect to consumer goods.
Some new thinking is called for on climate change. There has been,perhaps a justifiable trend so far to look at it as a North-South issue. Tears are being shed for our parting company with the group of 77 and our being a part of the six power summit which finalised the Copenhagen accord. But as Thomas Friedman has pointed out in The New York Times,what is called for today is an R&D race for clean energy. This is an opportunity for India. We should be thinking about what a partnership with the US offers instead of bewailing past wrongs That hundred billion dollars being promised will come from the new industrial surge arising out of the race for clean energy. Will India join this industrial revolution or allow it to pass by?
The writer is a senior defence analyst
