tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32214346.post7628284641016396114..comments2023-09-04T04:48:43.806-07:00Comments on Right Angle: India’s position on climate subverted (December 13, 2009)Swapan Dasguptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01862272792815377402noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32214346.post-7747870340314080962009-12-14T01:55:50.151-08:002009-12-14T01:55:50.151-08:00As someone who immensely enjoys your writing and y...As someone who immensely enjoys your writing and your TV appearances , I was pleasantly surprised to see you writing about climate change .However,I am surprised that someone like you actually has not come out in support of Jairam Ramesh. I would go further and say Jairam Ramesh has been a breath of fresh in Indian climate politics.<br />Within a couple of weeks of assuming his new Ministry, Ramesh quickly filled the decades of a vacant leadership zone in climate change and did some out of the box thinking. <br />He is right – per capita CO2 emission is misleading. Our current average per capita emission is about 1.67 tonnes which is pathetically low compared to the 23 tonnes of the average American and below the world average of about 5 tonnes per person. So just who is behind India s low average number? The upper 150 million Indians out of a billion plus people? Or the 823 million who have no access to energy? To me it looks a very heavy footprint of a relatively small wealthy class – camouflaging behind India s poor -this is how we have been getting away from inaction.<br />Either way you look at it, per capita or aggregate, both numbers are consequential. As the 4th largest emitter and as a country that is very vulnerable to climate impacts and for the 823 million who after 62 years of independence do not have energy rights, it is time that someone took leadership on the issue.<br />It has been a long road to Copenhagen -from Kyoto via Bali – protocols or no protocols, binding targets or non binding targets -in our own self interest we must act. Ramesh has drawn the red lines very clearly for India, what India will do and what India will not do. He stressed that India would not agree to a ‘peaking year’ on emissions for India as the country had a “huge backlog of development” that need to be addressed particularly with respect to rural electricity supply.<br />If we choose a path that is low carbon, surely we have a better chance for survival?Viva Kermanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00322868397454837933noreply@blogger.com