Indians have a rich tradition, stretching over thousands of years, of living in harmony with nature.  It is therefore natural that India has shown concern about protecting the global environment.  This is demonstrated by India’s active participation in all the international deliberations of the Montreal protocol for safe guarding the earth’s ozone layer, green-house warming, global climate change, as well as at the Earth Summit at Rio in June 1992, when India signed both the Climate Change and the Bio-diversity Conventions.  These  also exhibited the importance India placed on international cooperation in resolving various global environmental issues. 

A key task for each signatory country after Rio was to produce comparable methodologies  for making a national inventory of the source of greenhouse gases and their removal through sinks.  Some progress on improving the methodologies for measuring emissions has been made although more work needs to be done.  A bigger problem is figuring out how to measure the amount of carbondioxide that is absorbed by ‘sinks’  such as forests and oceans.  Development Alternatives as an organisation, committed to global environment issues, has taken up a study to assess the efficacy of Indian forests as CO₂ sinks titled “CO₂ Sequestration Capacity of the Indian Forests as a near-term option for reducing CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere, particularly from the developmental activities in India till 2005 AD”. 

All these findings are expected to determine the extent of India’s international obligations to global climate change and their possible impacts on India’s environment and social and economic structure, and response strategies that would be desirable. 

The emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) of the developed countries are posing a danger to the Planet’s climate and it is primarily their responsibility to reverse the situation be setting limits on them.  Developing countries will find it hard to reduce their emission in the foreseeable future.  Any restriction on the emission of CO₂  from fossil fuel use by developing countries will amount to imposing restriction on their economic development. 

But developing countries can also cooperate provided technology transfer and funding are made available without any conditions.  Most of the developing countries may well need at least a decade to research and adapt the advanced technologies from the North.  to undertake such research they will require considerable funds through bilateral or international arrangements.  Such research outputs can be shared with the North.  The technology in the areas of energy efficiency and alternative sources of energy are highly complex.  The developing countries, in a position to adapt these, should be provided easy access to them.  The technologies developed by developing countries  shall  flow to other countries on favourable terms. 

Some reports from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy and World Research Institute in 1990 noted that CO₂ emissions from India  were increasing ever  since 1950; the World Resource Institute (WRI) report characterised  India as the fifth largest contributor to current annual increases in the greenhouse effect, principally because of its emissions of methane  from a variety of agricultural practices. 

India’s stand in this regard was that there was considerable uncertainly about the extent to which methane contributes to global warming, the relative share of its various sources, and the amount contributed by different countries.  As a regards methane emissions from rice paddy fields, there are various factors such as soil condition, irrigation etc. and the uncertainty on the rates of methane emission from such sources.  There is also no recognized yardstick with which to assess the methane emissions caused by cattle on account of differences in feed and grazing habits as well as the genetic stock in different countries and regions.  Research conducted in India indicates that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates need downward revision. 

It is important to remember that the emission of methane from developing countries are a product of basic life support activities for which no alternatives are available in the near future. 

India and other developing countries should vigorously oppose attempts by industrialised countries to shift the focus from CO₂ to marginal contributors such as methane. 

As developing countries will be affected most, it is imperative they undertake research without delay in the areas of possible impacts of climate change and the steps that need to be taken to prevent damage.  Such research can be carried out in the independent sector organisation (NGOs) and in government institutions or universities funded internationally/bilaterally.  Such research efforts need to be initiated so that India does not follow the same wasteful path of development as the North. 

Though the concepts of an International Carbon Tax, International Tradeable Permits and International Offsets have been discussed in various international fora in the past, country specific studies on these instruments need to be undertaken to understand the implications of such market based instruments to the political philosophy and economic policies of a developing country like India particularly. 

Many developing countries including India have signed the Climate Change Convention, but it is unlikely that  they will be in a position to initiate the measures, which includes the introduction of different market mechanisms, to stabilize their GHG emissions.  India emits 0.21 metric tonnes of carbon against 5 metric tonnes of carbon against 5 metric tonnes of carbon against 5 metric tonnes of carbon per capital per year into the atmosphere by the U.S.  India’s population, which is at present about 844 million, may reach 1 billion by the turn of the century.  A low standard of living tends to perpetuate high population growth in the absence of economic growth.  It is natural the poverty alleviation programmes are given priority.   

Regulatory measures on GHGs in developing countries like India at this stage will have a serious implication and impact on the growth rate because of its intimate link with energy use.  Whether such instruments will retard the pace of development and poverty alleviation programmes in India and add to existing problems, are some of the issues that need careful examination. 

We feel therefore that it is premature to introduce the three instruments at the international and national level unit their merits and disadvantages are critically examined.  In India most of the utility services are highly subsidised.  It is feared that the instruments if introduced, may hit the common man hard and retard the pace of development, bringing many unforeseen socio-economic and demographic problems. 

But India should go at least upto the ‘No Regret’ levels and introduce the following measures countrywide:

Great care should be taken, however, that none of these interventions upset or slow down the pace of development and the ongoing poverty alleviation, health care and other welfare programmes in India.  q

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