The Hindu Business Line : Going that extra `green' mile

When Mumbai experienced 94 cm of rain on a single day in July 2005, it was a calamity that India's financial capital witnessed for the first time in 95 years. Caught unprepared, the city's residents had little choice but to cope with waterlogged homes, waterborne diseases and a nagging thought. Could they have been responsible for such a climatic catastrophe and its aftermath, as a result of unplanned growth and eroding mangroves?

Heat waves in Europe in 2003 killing thousands of people, floods in China, Bangladesh and the unprecedented downpour in Mumbai have brought home the chilling reality... that climate change has to do with the lifestyles we choose to lead.

The villain of the climate-change story is carbon dioxide along with other polluting gases that trap heat around the earth like a glass in a greenhouse. The trapped heat causes temperatures to rise resulting in global warming, where glaciers melt and sea levels rise causing flooding.

Climate-change experts may not pin down a single climate-related catastrophe as a sign of the troubled climatic times to come. But they do caution that the frequency of floods, warm winters and unnatural summers are likely to increase if action is not taken.

The case for combating climate change at government and individual levels was hammered home further in the UK with the publication of the government-commissioned Stern Report. Sir Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist, had submitted the report on the economics of climate change.

The report outlines the financial cost of delaying action and the cost of doing nothing, says Prof Julian Hunt, an expert on climate modelling at the University College, London, and a member of the House of Lords.

So governments are outlining green policies for industry and individuals to tackle climate change. For instance, the UK government's carbon credit cards proposal seeks to personalise responsibility and make individuals accountable for the energy they consume. The project, a favourite with UK's environment secretary David Miliband, seeks to initiate carbon trading among private citizens, as happens already between nations in line with the Kyoto protocol.

Corporates too are getting on to the carbon-conscious bandwagon. Some of them label food miles on products, indicating the distance travelled by the product to get to the market-shelf. Others like travel operators plot people's carbon footprint, indicating the carbon emitted by one's travelling.

Carbon credit cards

The carbon credit card proposal involves the system of rationing out carbon among the country's adult population, says Keith Tyrell, climate and energy editor of The ENDS Report, a reputed journal for environmental policy and business in the UK.

The idea is to give each person a certain number of carbon credits to start with. When he or she buys petrol, uses electricity, etc, credits get reduced from the card. So one who does not own a car can sell carbon credits in the market to another consumer who may need more to support additional flights that he or she may need.

Carbon credit cards do not penalise everyone like carbon tax. In fact, carbon rationing is very equitable, says Tyrell. Though it remains to be resolved whether these cards would be voluntary, the carbon credit card system does not involve privacy issues that caused the controversy around having identity cards, he says.

In another carbon-conscious effort, British Chancellor Gordon Brown increased the price on fuel, doubled air passenger duties and gave sops to zero-carbon, energy-efficient homes in his recent pre-budget report in the UK.

Green campaigners may say that the UK government has soft-pedalled the issue, when in fact tough measures were required to tackle climate change. But by exempting zero-carbon homes from stamp tax when they are bought and sold, Brown has put energy-efficient homes in the popular domain. According to Richard Starkey, researcher with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, households are responsible for about 40 per cent of the energy emissions in the UK.

Consumption patterns

Another study by the UK-government funded Carbon Trust has further pinned down the role of individuals in resisting climate change by revealing consumption patterns in the UK.

Recreation emerges as the single largest source of emissions representing 1.95 tonnes of carbon emissions per person per year, said media reports quoting the study. Recreation, such as seaside trips, creates 200 kg of emissions per person per year and television, videos and stereos account for another 35 kg.

Heating, including burning gas, electricity and oil, accounts for the second biggest source of carbon dioxide, at 1.49 tonnes per person per year. And food is the third biggest emission source at 1.39 tonnes per person per year from cooking, eating and drinking. The Carbon Trust report says that food transport is equivalent to 300 kg per person per year; driving to the supermarket is another 40 kg; a restaurant meal generates 8 kg per diner.

The annual carbon footprint of the average Briton at 10.92 tonnes of carbon dioxide is roughly half the 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide produced by the average American every year, the report says.

Transparency over carbon emissions also got royal endorsement recently when Prince Charles said that his Duchy Originals range would be labelled with details of the greenhouse gases emitted in making the goods, which range from sausages to shampoos. Under the scheme, every stage will be analysed to quantify the climate-changing gas released in producing each of the 200 items, say British media reports. The Prince of Wales is known to be pro-green and recently instructed aides to use bicycles to help cut down the carbon emissions of his household.

Lord Hunt observes that countries may even favour products grown locally, as opposed to having them shipped across continents, a thought that contradicts world trade concepts on free market access.

Reports indicate that air miles on goods are comparable or larger than those involved in transporting people, he says — another argument for going local.

Corporate responsibility

Retailers such as Boots and Marks & Spencer are said to be considering a carbon audit of their supply chains. There are energy-efficient washing machines to attract the ethical consumer. Detergent brand Ariel from Procter & Gamble advertises efficient cleaning using less water and power; travel operators devise plans to reduce a traveller's carbon footprint or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by taking a flight out on holiday, for instance.

One industry that has come in for the rough end of the stick in the climate debate is aviation and its contribution to global warming, with appeals to the public to take fewer flights, especially those on cheap airlines.

But Giovanni Bisignani of the International Air Transport Association defends the industry in his column in The Guardian: "UN scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimate aviation's contribution to global carbon emissions to be just 2 per cent ... road traffic contributes 18 per cent globally, while the fossil fuels used to generate heat and power contribute 35 per cent."

People are indeed travelling more in India, China and East Europe, he says. But this is being balanced by slower growth in mature markets. And the net impact, estimated by the IPCC, is that aviation's contribution may grow to 3 per cent by 2050.

The aviation industry is looking to control emissions further through a next-generation aircraft, which will have greater fuel efficiency at three litres per 100 passenger kilometres — better than any hybrid car in the market, argues Bisignani. Past initiatives in straightening routes, reducing congestion and eliminating delays slashed carbon emissions from aircraft by more than 12 million tonnes in 2005, he claims, equivalent to removing three million cars from Britain's roads.

Tyrell points out that the UK government is widening its scope from looking at big polluting industries to setting new emission caps for the next tier like hospitals and supermarkets as well.

India, China and carbon

As companies look to blend in with changing lifestyles and climate concerns, Lord Hunt points out the significance of emerging economies such as India and China. The individual cultural and lifestyle choices that people in these countries make in future will be of critical importance. And it should be comparable to the best practices of the industrial world and not worst consumerist practices, he says.

India and China will have to work in a carbon-constrained world, Tyrell says. They have the advantage of natural resources and should use the benefits of clean development mechanisms to leap-frog over the dirty phase of development, he adds.

The ball is in the court of the developing countries, says Lord Hunt, as groundwork begins on taking the Kyoto Protocol to its next level after it runs out in 2012.

Sternspeak

If no action is taken to reduce emissions, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could be double its pre-industrial level as early as 2035, virtually committing us to a global average temperature rise of over 2 degrees Celsius.

In the longer term, there would be a more than 50 per cent chance that the temperature rise would exceed 5 degrees Celsius. This rise would be very dangerous indeed: it is equivalent to the change in average temperatures from the last Ice Age to today.

Such a radical change in the physical geography of the world must lead to major changes in human geography — where people live and how they live.

The impact of climate change could be reduced if greenhouse gas levels could be stabilised between 450 parts per million (ppm) and 550 ppm carbon dioxide equivalent. The current level is 430 ppm, rising at more than two ppm each year.

The developed world should take responsibility for absolute cuts in emissions of 60-80 per cent by 2050. Developing countries should take significant action too, though they should not be required to bear the full cost.

Carbon markets in rich countries are beginning to channel finance to support low-carbon development through clean development mechanisms.

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