By Joydeep Gupta
Bali(IANS) : Seeking “new and additional” money for developing countries to address the menace of global warming, India Wednesday told the plenary session of the UN conference on climate change here that industrialised countries must not re-appropriate funds meant for development for this purpose.
In a strong speech that finally laid out India’s position at the Bali summit and was keenly followed by nearly 11,000 delegates from 187 countries and the global media gathered here, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal said: “Estimates of adaptation costs (to adapt to the global warming effects that are already here and will increase) for developing countries run into several tens of billions of US dollars on an annual basis.
“I hope that there is clear recognition by all concerned that these have to be met through ‘new and additional’ monies and not by re-appropriation of funds meant for development.”
Shortly before his speech, Sibal told IANS that India was fully behind the position taken up by G-77 and China, which had strongly criticised attempts by industrialised countries to move the transfer of green technology out of the Bali roadmap to fight global warming.
“You cannot have a situation where there is no mechanism for technology transfer,” he said, while expressing satisfaction on the successful conclusion of the issue of fighting deforestation.
The Bali summit is going to add the fight against deforestation as part of the fight against climate change, so that afforestation projects can be funded. India has been pushing hard to get conservation of forests added to ‘afforestation’.
Reacting to recent statements from the governments of Canada, Japan and Australia that they would not commit themselves to further reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases – that warm the atmosphere – unless countries such as India and China did the same, Sibal said that whole thing was a non-starter.
“We’re taking national measures,” pointed out the minister who is a member of the prime minister’s task force on climate change. “Our national action plan (to address climate change) will be finalised by February or March next year.”
At the speech, Sibal made a strong case for the development needs of India. The largest emitter of greenhouse gases that warm the atmosphere is the power generation sector. But, he pointed out: “600 million people in India do not have access to electricity. We have no choice but to rapidly expand energy use to realise our national development goals and the millennium development goals (of the UNDP).
“Our per capita emission of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) is among the lowest in the world at around one tonne per annum as against a world average of four tonnes.
“Nevertheless, we have been taking measures that inherently promote sustainable development. This includes a national environment policy, an energy conservation act and a new electricity act that mandates the procurement of electricity from reneweables. We now have the fourth largest wind power capacity in the world.
“We also understand the importance of carbon sinks and, in addition to protecting our existing forest cover from deforestation through a national law, we are launching the world’s largest afforestation project covering six million hectares of degraded forest land at a cost of over $1.5 billion.”
Sibal listed the energy efficiency measures taken by India and then said: “Technology is a key enabler in our efforts to tackle climate change. It is imperative that international efforts significantly enhance availability of cost effective advanced clean technologies to developing countries many of which rely on fossil fuels as a major source of energy.
“The IPR (intellectual property rights) regime must balance rewards for innovators with the common good of humankind. Standards and norms must reflect the development levels of where they are being deployed.
“It is therefore good that at Bali we have brought technology transfer on the agenda for implementation. Mere discussion is not enough. We need to reach decisions. Absence of decisions only reinforces the perception that there is lack of will on the part of the developed countries to fulfil their commitments. We need to reach consensus on technology transfer and capacity building – two issues that are really central to the global response to climate change.
“On our part, we would be happy to share with our friends in the developing world the science and technology expertise and capacities that India has built over the years.”
At the plenary session, the minister reiterated the concept that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had first put forward at the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June. “Our prime minister offered that India’s per capita GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions would at no stage exceed the per capita GHG emissions of developed countries even as we pursue our economic development.”
Sibal pointed out that developed countries had so far shown no sign that they would be able to meet their legally binding commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their GHG emissions by five percent from 1990.
In this situation, he said: “We are concerned at the attempts to create a new framework, which may result in the dilution of specific and time-bound commitments on emission reduction by developed countries. This should not be allowed to happen. Any such dilution would have disastrous and irreversible consequences for future generations.”
According to Sibal, the most important message that should go out from the Bali summit was that “the negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol for quantified, time-bound and substantial GHG reductions by developed countries post 2012 (when the current phase of the protocol comes to an end) will be completed by 2009.
“Bali must also focus on urgent action for enhanced implementation of the convention. Adaptation and technology cooperation, forestry issues including afforestation, sustainable lifestyle patterns, sustainable consumption levels and financial arrangements are key: only then will we fully address the issues of global warming.”