Shouldn’t expect world to fund India’s low-carbon strategy: Ramesh

It would be “foolish” for India to expect that its low-carbon strategy will be financed by the world, says Jairam Ramesh, former Union Minister for Environment and Forests. India should reduce carbon emissions in “our own interests,” he says.

It was recently reported that Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian had sent a note to the Prime Minister’s Office, saying India should not seek global funding for its programmes.

“That is what I said in 2009. I agree with Arvind,” Ramesh told BusinessLine , when asked for a reaction to the CEA’s recommendation. In 2009, Ramesh was India’s chief negotiator at the climate talks in Copenhagen.

Calling Subramanian’s advice a “pragmatic approach”, Ramesh observed that it made political sense to bat for making global climate finance made available to small island nations first, countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and Africa.

“We don’t have many friends among the African nations,” he said, observing that those countries see India as a part of the problem, given that India is the fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. (However, on per capita basis, India’s record is not so bad)

If India continues with a business-as-usual approach, it will be the world’s No 2 polluter by 2030, said Ramesh.

What India could do He expected India’s commitments at the forthcoming Paris conference to stand on four pillars: a) commitment to reduce emission intensity (CO2 emissions per unit of GDP) to 30 per cent by 2025 and 40 per cent by 2030, over 2005 levels; b) improve energy efficiency by 20 per cent through the ‘perform, achieve, trade’ regime (which sets energy consumption norms for designated consumers with incentives for beating the norms and penalties otherwise); c) increase solar power generation capacity to 100 GW (from 4 GW now); and d) improving forest cover.

Ramesh said India could also commit to doing more if finance and technology was provided (an approach that some countries, such as Mexico, have taken).

Copenhagen to Paris Ramesh observed that between the Copenhagen talks of 2009 and December’s Paris talks, there are a number of fundamental changes on the ground.

First, China and the US have come up with ambitious commitments for reducing emissions. In the case of the US, he said, the commitments were not what the world called for, but nevertheless ambitious from a US standpoint.

Second, “the notion that we can take international commitments for emission reduction has been accepted in India,” Ramesh said, recalling that he was widely criticised in 2009, when he called for voluntary reductions in emission intensity. He called this “a big change.”

Third, there is now a universal consensus on limiting global warming to 2 degrees over 1850 reference levels. Finally, “there is a grudging consensus” that emission reduction commitments should be based on ‘bottom-up approach’ (meaning, voluntary commitments by nations, as opposed to one that is imposed by an agreement.)

Asked if he expected success at Paris – the Copenhagen conference was a failure – Ramesh said, “Paris is gastronomically a better place than Copenhagen.”

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