India all action to meet Copenhagen Targets

The Copenhagen Summit is over and the next summit is still far from
sight.... so, what has been the effect of the summit and what serious actions
have nations and companies taken? Whether companies and the Indian government
made the right noise still remains a big question. So, in view of all these
perspectives, its time to put the moves of various authorities under the
scanner.

Indian Hues

India has been participating in various global meetings that have been held
post the Copenhagen Summit to try and move towards a consensus so that a fair,
ambitious and binding global deal can be reached in December 2010, in Mexico
City, that will limit global warming to 2 C, as necessary. Locally, India has
set up an expert group housed in the Planning Commission that will prepare an
action plan to move India towards a low carbon economy, which will be
implemented during the 12th Five Year Plan.

As part of this Plan, India aims to cut emissions intensity by 20-25% by
2020 on the 2005 levels. As part of this target, India is also committing to a
very ambitious plan on clean energy sources, informs Nisha Agrawal, CEO, Oxfam
India. Indias current emission level is 1.1 tonne per capita per year and if
India has to reduce emission by 20% then it has to work out a 0.22 per capita
per year decrease till 2020. Whereas, if the same is compared with that of the
US whose current level stands at 20 per capita per year, which if treated to 20%
reduction will result to 4 tonne per capita per year, is comparitively higher.

The key debate post Copenhagen for India, according to Kishore Butani,
founder, www.carbonyatra.com, is the issue of carbon space left in the
atmosphere to occupy. He says, India and other emerging economies are being
asked to make larger emission cuts than normal. A global deal is now unlikely at
the next big climate conference in Cancun at the end of this year. The US was to
pass a climate bill, but that too is stuck at the drafting stage. So all these
factors mean that Indian renewable energy developers, are not sure about the
viability of their carbon credits sale post 2012.

Government Support

The Government of India in various forums and in its communication to United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has made it clear that
it supports the Copenhagen Accord but looks at it as a step towards
strengthening the Kyoto Protocol and the UNFCCC and not as a substitute to the
two track process.

Apart from that India, China, Brazil and South Africa have decided to reopen
the climate debate at a special session in Brazil in June.

The EU and the US want India to announce some adherence measures, which
includes monitoring and verification of cuts in GHG emissions, but the US
currently has no carbon legislation in place.

Environment ministers of the BASIC countriesnamely, Brazil, South Africa,
India and Chinahave said that a legally binding global agreement to limit
climate change is needed to be completed by 2011, and have now said that they
are not willing to wait for the US to announce some legislation. Butani adds,
Remember that the Kyoto carbon market is a success story for Indian companies
and this was accomplished without the US on board. The world should now move
ahead with or without the US, since the US has never and will never enter the
compliance carbon market.

Under the Scanner

The reaction to the Copenhagen Summit can be broadly classified as that of
inaction and action. Inaction can be described on the part of the Environment
Ministry as a statement was issued but there have been not much happenings on
the companies front and even the country as a whole. In other words, there has
been a sort of non-commitment towards making things legally binding. Though the
government has said that they will reduce carbon footprint by 20% but no steps
have been taken in this direction to make it legally binding.

In fact there have been no specific goals set by corporates from any sector,
say for instance even the IT sector. But if you consider IT companies in the
Europe, the US, etc, they have set internal targets for themselves that are in
line with the countrys target, informs Akash Chander, lead business
development and head, sustainability initiative, Logica India. There is no real
push given to the industry.

Transfer of technology from the developed countries to the developing
countries will help bring the latter on a similar platform as the former. Apart
from this there shall be a similar carbon budget across nations. In fact
cheaper and greener technology should be made available to companies in all
nations. Availability of technology at reasonable costs for India will enable to
bring down emissions in an altruistic manner, elaborates Chander.

Currently, in India no specific action has been taken on this front. No
internal goals have been set but more diligence has been adopted by the
government while approving large or major projects. Even the government has not
made specific moves. Tax benefits and subsidies are being offered but this is
not an outcome of the summit but it existed beforehand.

As far as companies are concerned, they are trying to make the right moves by
being a part of the best practices forum and environment friendly forum.

The Road Ahead

According to Butani, When the carbon market expires in 2012, and if there
is no new market post 2012, exporters from India and China could be subject to a
carbon tax when supplying goods to the EU. Though, India will continue to
engage the US and EU in climate change talks, but will take a leaf out of China
when it comes to acting on climate change. India plans to launch a public
database of the countrys worst polluters, as being done by China. Only when
the last tree is cut, only when the last river is polluted, only when the last
fish is caught, will they realize that you cant eat money.

Shilpa Shanbhag

shilpas@cybermedia.co.in