Staff clear panels at a photo voltaic park in Modhera, India’s first round the clock solar-powered village in Gujarat. October 19, 2022.
| Photograph Credit score: Sunil Kataria
India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, finds itself on the crossroads of growth and environmental sustainability. The worldwide method to local weather change, closely centered on decreasing carbon emissions via renewable vitality adoption, overlooks India’s distinctive socio-economic and geographical challenges.
This one-size-fits all technique is basically flawed and will undermine the effectiveness of India’s local weather efforts, as argued within the Financial Survey 2023-24. The worldwide technique to fight local weather change revolves round local weather adaptation and mitigation, with an emphasis on renewable vitality, vitality effectivity and slicing methane emissions. Whereas these targets are attainable for developed nations, they’re far more difficult for India. The nation’s inhabitants exceeds 1.4 billion, and the demand for vitality to gas its growth is immense.
Regardless of this, India’s per capita emissions stay at round 2.8 tonnes of CO2 equal per 12 months, in comparison with eight tonnes within the EU and 16 tonness within the US. Renewable vitality sources resembling photo voltaic and wind are sometimes seen as the final word answer to local weather change. Nonetheless, the transition to renewables just isn’t with out important challenges. As an example, the manufacturing of photo voltaic panels and wind generators requires substantial quantities of uncommon earth metals resembling lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These supplies are primarily extracted from nations with poor labour and environmental requirements. The extraction course of is energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, resulting in a paradox the place the pursuit of fresh vitality contributes to environmental degradation.
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Furthermore, renewable vitality sources are intermittent. Photo voltaic and wind energy technology depends upon climate circumstances, necessitating substantial storage capacities to make sure a steady energy provide. This storage requirement additional exacerbates the environmental affect, as battery manufacturing includes further mining and useful resource extraction. India faces a singular set of challenges in its quest to cut back carbon emissions. The nation’s heavy reliance on coal for industrial processes, energy technology, and transportation makes transitioning to cleaner vitality sources notably tough.
Roughly 70 per cent of India’s electrical energy comes from coal, highlighting the size of the problem. The monetary burden of this transition is one other main hurdle. Growing nations resembling India require roughly $6 trillion by 2030 to satisfy their local weather targets. Nonetheless, solely $100 billion was pledged by developed nations until 2020, with an precise provision of simply $83.3 billion. This financing hole makes it almost inconceivable for India to make the mandatory investments in clear vitality infrastructure and know-how.
A crucial flaw within the present local weather technique is its failure to deal with overconsumption in developed nations. Excessive-income nations are accountable for almost all of worldwide emissions, with the highest 10 per cent of emitters averaging 22 tonnes of CO2 per 12 months, over 200 instances the emissions of the underside 10 per cent. Regardless of this, the main target stays on technological options slightly than addressing the basis explanation for the issue: extreme consumption.
As an example, the common American consumes 12,700 kWh of electrical energy yearly, in comparison with simply 185 kWh in Africa. This disparity underscores the necessity for a extra holistic method to local weather motion that features way of life adjustments and decreased consumption in developed nations, alongside technological developments. India should advocate for a local weather technique that displays its developmental wants and capabilities. This includes investing in clear vitality applied sciences which are suited to its distinctive context, resembling small-scale photo voltaic and wind tasks, bettering vitality effectivity in industries, and selling sustainable agricultural practices.
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Moreover, India ought to leverage its place as a frontrunner within the International South to push for extra equitable local weather insurance policies that maintain developed nations accountable for his or her historic emissions and present consumption patterns. To really deal with the local weather disaster, the worldwide group should undertake a extra nuanced and equitable method. This contains recognisng the historic emissions of developed nations and offering ample monetary and technological help to creating nations. It additionally means shifting the main target from merely substituting fossil fuels with renewables to selling sustainable consumption and way of life adjustments.
The present world method to local weather change is basically flawed and inadequate to deal with the distinctive challenges confronted by India. A extra equitable and sustainable technique is required—one which recognises the interconnected nature of local weather, growth, and consumption and gives the mandatory help for all nations to realize their local weather targets.
India’s local weather technique have to be rethought to make sure that it isn’t solely efficient but additionally simply and inclusive, permitting the nation to proceed its growth whereas contributing to world local weather efforts.
Souryabrata Mohapatra is a school member at NCAER in New Delhi.
