MSc Climate Change, Finance and Management • Climate Change Governance
Tackling Climate Change in a developing world India case study
Climate Change Governance reflection
MSc Climate Change, Finance and Management • Climate Change Governance
INTRODUCTION Known as ‘the motherland of cultures and religions’, India has become one of the fastest emerging players in the global market. Within the last decades, the economy has grown exponentially, the population has doubled to 1.3 billion people and the amount of foreign direct investments have skyrocketed to billions (World Bank Data, 2015). Nevertheless, poverty remains a giant barrier for India’s development. More than 70% of the population lives in poor conditions with limited access to subsistence resources and 23% earns less than 1£ a day (Data World Bank, 2015). Inequality, corruption and overpopulation are critical issues that are braking India to emerge as a westernised country. And more recently, the threat of Climate Change is alarming the country and the political debate. The scientist community has indeed affirmed that Climate Change will impact mainly developing and vulnerable countries (IPPC, 2013). Relatively little is known about Climate Change in India and yet the country will be a crucial actor in the world to solve this climate crisis and avoid unrepairable disasters. How can India’s government mitigate both today’s development challenges and tomorrow Climate Change effects? This reflective paper will focus on this central question combined with my own experience I have in India this year during a two weeks road trip and my academic knowledge.
I. DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES India has today the fastest growing economy with a growth rate of 13% and contrastingly is one of the poorer countries in the world. In 2010, around 800 million people relied in traditional biomass for cooking (International Energy Agency, 2012). When I first arrived in India, I was outraged by the amount of waste on the street and the pollution of traffic jams I experienced. Then, I released how it
MSc Climate Change, Finance and Management • Climate Change Governance
was so meaningless to educate the Climate Change issue with people that can barely satisfy their own vital needs. How do you explain dropping the use of the car and promoting responsible behaviors to illiterate people that are struggling to eat something every day? Due to the lack of means and the lack of education, poverty stands as an obstacle to the understanding and the awareness of Climate Change. A second barrier is related to the population in certain urban areas.
Currently, 70% of India’s population lives in cities
(Poverties, 2013). In Mumbai for example, there are more than 30 million people. With such a number, the implementation of climate policies becomes just impossible due to the lack of control of local authorities on its growing population. Similarly, green public infrastructure projects are difficult to implement because of the vast concentration of people in certain urban spaces. A third difficulty regards the inequality among the caste system. India is the most unequal country in the world. According to the Credit Suisse, in 2016, the 1% of the richest owned 53% of total wealth in India in and the top 10% owned 76% and the gap has widened over the years (Oxfam, 2016). In front of such disparity, the fate of the nation will depend on few hands. Climate Change decisions will rely on few people that do not truly experience the daily effect of Climate Change. Finally, a last inconvenience refers to the share of responsibility. Developed countries accounted for 79% of historical carbon emissions while India was only responsible for 2% (Center for Global Development, 2015). India’s government remains very skeptical to foster actions and spend money for resolving an issue that was caused by the western world. However, today Climate Change reached such a scale that urgent actions are needed to protect citizens against health, safety and security issues.
MSc Climate Change, Finance and Management • Climate Change Governance
II. MITIGATION OPPORTUNITES In 2015, International Energy Agency reported that more than 1 million people died because of air pollution in India and mostly women and children were affected (International Energy Agency, 2016). Facing such tragedy, India has no choice to take actions. This part will highlight that approaching clean tech solutions is a development opportunity for India. First of all, by tackling Climate Change India can benefit from win win solutions that will help the nation to be greener, wealthier and healthier. Environment Institute & Stockholm Resilience Centre released a study emphasizing that investing in green solutions could at the same time contribute to build a long term societal resilience. The paper demonstrated that in agriculture the use of smart technologies and green practices would increase both the quality and the food production by 40% while also emitting zero carbon. (World Resources Institute, n.d.). With a booming population, food insecurity is a giant issue in India. Food access and hygienic standards are very weak. An agriculture revolution could help the country to address poverty and meet the needs of a growing consumption whilst fostering a green transition. Second, with more than 300 sunny days a year, India has an immense potential in the solar power industry (World Bank, 2017). The young entrepreneur Ketan Mehta, CEO of Rays Power argues that the solar industry is an opportunity still unexplored in India. Nearly a quarter of the population still don’t have access to electricity and the solar energy prices have fallen by more than 40% in a year making solar power an affordable solution cheaper than coal fired power stations. Last, the rise of foreign direct investments and the targets of the Paris agreement have opened up finance opportunities in clean technologies. Today, a global renewable market is on its way in the developing world. In 2015, developing economies invested more in green energy than developed countries. (International Energy Agency, 2016).
MSc Climate Change, Finance and Management • Climate Change Governance
Promising trends may shape the future and lead the developing economies as India to lead the sustainable transition. And governance will have a central role to support this revolution and welcome, educate and foster actions for Climate Change.
CONCLUSION In India, Climate Change is approached mainly as a developmental challenge. The lack of means and the share of responsibility is braking India to consider Climate Change as governance agenda priority. However, today the increase of Climate Change impacts is overcoming the debate and urging governments to take actions. Political leaders must understand that addressing the climate issues is a valuable contribution to progress and development. Combining multiple objectives together opens opportunities to strengthen the societal and environmental welfare. The government must also foster efforts in developing a new force in most promising industries such as solar energy which could simultaneously help to create millions of jobs in India. Finally, the country has to embrace the new global trend of investments in low carbon technologies and welcome financing opportunities across this beautiful motherland of karma.
REFERENCES Center for Global Development. (2015). Developed Countries Are Responsible for 79 Percent of Historical Carbon Emissions. [online] Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/media/who-caused-climate-change-historically [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. Data World Bank. (2015). Poverty | Data. [online] Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty?locations=IN [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. Dubash, N. (2011). Handbook of climate change and India, development politics and governance. Navroz K. Dubs.
MSc Climate Change, Finance and Management • Climate Change Governance
International Energy Agency. (2016). World Outlook Report, Energy and Air Pollution. [online] Available at: https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WorldEnergy OutlookSpecialReport2016EnergyandAirPollution.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. International Energy Agency. (2012). World Energy Outlook 2012. [online] Available at: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weowebsite/2012/Presentationto Press.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. IPCC. (2013). Fifth Assessment Report - Climate Change 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/ [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. Oxfam. (2016). Inequality in India: what's the real story?. [online] Available at: https://www.oxfamindia.org/blog/1693/inequality-india-what-real-story) [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. Poverties. (2013). Poverty in India: Causes, Effects, Injustice & Exclusion. [online] Available at: https://www.poverties.org/blog/poverty-in-india [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. University of Oxford. (2011). The response of China, India, Brazil to Climate Change. [online] Available at: http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/library/reports/response-china-india-brazilclimate-change-perspective-south-africa.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. World Bank. (2017). Solar Parks in India. [online] Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/03/30/world-bankboard-approves-usd100-million-large-scale-solar-parks-india [Accessed 23 May 2017]. World Bank. (2015). A Measured Approach to Ending Poverty and Boosting Shared Prosperity. [online] Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/20384/97814 64803611.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017]. World Resources Institute. (n.d.). Win-Win Solutions from a New Green Revolution. [online] Available at: http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/worldresources-report/win-win-solutions-new-green-revolution [Accessed 25 Jun. 2017].