Green battles of the new age

Carbon dioxide gas, emitted largely by burning of fossil fuels, gets trapped in the earth’s atmosphere raising the global temperature. Known as greenhouse effect, this could alter global climate and agriculture.

Addressing an international conference in Tokyo, Gore, who is deeply interested in environmental issues, said that while developed countries like the US, Japan and the European Union should take on greater responsibilities, India and China should also have obligations.

It is heartening to note that after years of down-playing climate change the US is coming around to accept its existence. However, it is disturbing that the US is putting pressure on developing countries in order to deflect some heat off itself in a somewhat uncertain scientific scenario. The second assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded by stating that it is “discernible human influence on climate”, but its quantification is still limited because the signals are just emerging and there are still some uncertainties.

In addition, the statements by top US functionaries not only strike at the spirit of the agreements under the Climate Change treaty which asks only the developed countries to return to 1990 emission levels by the year 2000, but also have serious implications for India’s future development. For instance, if there are curbs on carbon dioxide emissions, India may have to curtail the use of coal to generate much-needed power.

Coal accounts for about 60 per cent of fossil fuel use in calorific terms, followed by liquid petroleum, which is about 30 per cent and the rest is natural gas. At present India occupies the sixth place as a national contributor of carbon dioxide. Total emissions of the gas have increased by 10.4 times, and per capita emissions have gone up 4.4 times, which incidentally are about 40 times lower than those in North America.

When asked about the US move, top officials of the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) refused to comment, saying that they had not been officially informed of the US the position. Mandarins at the ministry of external affairs were equally clueless.

The US has, in fact, proposed a total revision of the climate change treaty when the parties to the convention meet in December in Kyoto, Japan. The US has proposed “legally-binding” agreements to cut emissions between 2010 and 2020, with technological flexibility to effect it.

It is pushing for the mechanism of “joint implementation”. This mode encourages private industry from the US and other developed countries to invest in projects in the developing world that would substantially improve energy efficiency in the emergent economies or that would store carbon dioxide, in their biomass, principally forests.

Carbon is stored in trees and is released as carbon dioxide when they are cut or burned down. Methane is another potent greenhouse gas and is produced by rotting rice fields covered with water, in the digestive tracts of cows and in sealed landfills.

This clearly constitutes initiating soft options for the developed countries through the provision of emissions trading, and require developing countries like India and China to be brought into the process.