CONTEXT

• With current per capita emissions that are less than half the global average, India’s pledge to reach ‘net zero’ emissions by 2070 has cemented India’s credentials as a global leader.
• The emissions of all others who have pledged “net zero’ by 2050 are above the global average.

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF INDIA’S PLEDGE

• At COP26 in Glasgow, India successfully challenged the 40-year-old frame of global climate policy that pointed a finger at developing countries with the alternate frame of ‘climate justice’, that unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns are to blame.
• The political implication of the date 2070 is that the world should get to ‘net-zero’ by 2050.
• As a result, the rich countries will need to do more and step up closer to their share of the carbon budget.
• Also, India’s stand signals that it will not act under external pressure, as requiring equal treatment is the hallmark of a global power.

G7 NO LONGER A RULE SETTER

• The problem, as Gandhiji had also observed, is really western civilization.
• Despite automobile emissions being the fastest growing emissions, the subject of oil was not touched because it is a defining feature of western civilisation.
• While western world has been pushing other nations to stop using coal — an energy resource which powered its own Industrial Revolution.
• But now India and China’s working together has forced the G7 to make a retraction, thus signalling the coming of a world order in which the G7 no longer sets the rules.

CHALLENGES FOR WEST

• The West has yet to come out with a clear strategy of how it will remain within the broad outline of its carbon budget.
• The problems of a scaling-down of economic production and lifestyles will be another major challenge to tackle.
• Also it is becoming difficult for the West to use international trade that is shifting manufacturing and the burden of emissions to developing countries with the rise of a digital economy.

NEED TO CUT CONSUMPTION

• • In the West, consumption of affluent households has overridden the beneficial effects of changes in technology.
    • There is sufficient evidence in the literature that the consumption of affluent households both determines and accelerates an increase of emissions of carbon dioxide.
  • • This is followed by socio-economic factors such as mobility and dwelling size.

• Hence, there is a need for the West to address climate change by reducing consumption, not just greening it.

• For India, in parallel with the infrastructure and clean technology thrust, focus should be on a decent living standard which will lead to behavioural change in the end-use service, such as mobility, shelter and nutrition. This will help in modifying wasteful trends.

WAYFORWARD

• Consumption patterns need to be ‘shifted away from resource and carbon-intensive goods and services, e.g. mobility from cars and aircraft to buses and trains, and nutrition from animal and processed food to a seasonal plant-based diet’.
• Along with reducing demand, resource and carbon intensity of consumption has to decrease, e.g. expanding renewable energy, electrifying cars and public transport and increasing energy and material efficiency’.
• Achieving a more equal distribution of wealth with a minimum level of prosperity and affordable energy use for all, e.g., housing and doing away with biomass for cooking.
• Need to stress on Indian civilisational values which emphasise on vegetarianism, frown on wastage.
• The Government needs to set up focused research groups for the conceptual frame of sustainable well-being.
• Also it should analyse the drivers of affluent overconsumption and conduct studies to understand the quantity of energy we really need for a decent level of well-being.

EFFORTS BY INDIAN PARLIAMENT

• After the Stockholm Declaration on the Global Environment, the Constitution was amended in 1976 to include Protection and Improvement of Environment as a fundamental duty.
• Under Article 253, Parliament has the power to make laws for implementing international treaties and agreements and can legislate on the preservation of the natural environment.
  • Parliament used Article 253 to enact the Environment Protection Act to implement the decisions reached at the Stockholm Conference.

CONCLUSION

• The decisions at COP26 enable a new set of legislation around ecological limits, energy and land use, including the efficient distribution and use of electricity, urban design and a statistical system providing inputs for sustainable well-being.
• But with the increasing inequality, rise of protectionism and trade barriers imposing, there is a need to anticipate new standards.
  • This knowledge is essential for national policy as well as the next round of climate negotiations.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/setting-the-tone-at-glasgow-the-job-ahead-in-delhi/article37692052.ece