The impact of climate change as a result of global warming has become one of the most critical global issues in the recent times. The impact viz. famines and drought, world wide drop in crop production, risk of flooding and scarcity of water supply, sea level rise etc. etc. will have huge influence on billions of people in the world. Without going into the nitty-gritty of climate science, the impact undeniably is of serious concern. It is also rightly concluded that the global warming is because of the rise of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, especially carbon dioxide (CO2). Energy consumption is closely associated with substantial part of GHG emissions. Out of various forms of energy, electricity alone is responsible for 42% of global co2 emissions and 24% of total GHG emissions.
WHERE DO WE STAND?
More than 40% of Indian households populations have no access to electricity after 62 years of independence and as such our position as electricity user in the word is clear from the following figures (year 2007) from Key World Energy Statistics, IEA 2009.
Country Per capita electricity consumption (KWH)
Sweden: 15,238
USA: 13,616
Australia: 11,216
Japan: 8,475
Germany: 7,185
China: 2,328
Indonesia: 564
India: 543
This is against world average of 2,752 KWH. What about CO2 emission in tons per annum?
USA : 19.10
Australia: 18.75
Germany: 9.71
Japan: 9.68
Sweden: 5.05
China: 4.57
Indonesia: 1.67
India: 1.18
The world average 4.38 tons.
It is obvious India and other developing countries are contributing the least to climate change and yet they are being lectured by the developed countries to cut down emission as per their diktats. The question of equity and burden sharing therefore has to be the major focal point for climate justice. As energy usage is a major factor in carbon emission, energy justice becomes central to climate justice.
The above figures show glaringly the energy disparity between the rich and the poor countries. Energy is key to higher stages of social evolution. The ability to produce and use greater and greater quantities of useful energy forms the base of societal change. Energy disparity has therefore made big change in making a nation rich or poor. Ironically the biggest polluters and the energy consuming countries led by USA and European countries are posing to be the saviour of the planet and are prescribing measures to others to reduce GHG emissions.
This hypocrisy gets further exposed if one goes through an article titled “A development nightmare – what if the poor nation actually caught up with the rich ones” by Prof. Kenneth Rogoff. In such a nightmare when every nation enjoys the same per capita income as the United States (roughly 40,000 dollar per year), same education, health and life style, the global CO2 emission would be 4 times the present level as each person would be emitting 20 tons CO2 per annum in the atmosphere!
AFFLUENCE VS DEPRIVATION
The essence is therefore a clash of rich and polluting nations and the deprived and polluted poor (aspiring to be affluent) countries at the global level. As for India the track record of energy consumption and resultant GHG emission is equally lopsided. Extravagant energy consumption by the rich vis-a-vis lack of access to energy for vast section of the population in lowest income group, speaks for itself. Much of the poor population have an average CO2 per capita emission of 335 kg compared to the higher income group having per capita emission of more than 1500 kg.
Apart from the non - availability many of this poor cannot afford to have power at the present cost. That is why the state has to intervene in a very limited way to subsidize power tariff as a part of distributive justice. With the entry of private sector and market forces in energy sector after globalization in early 90’s, this accessibility is also being further restricted by gradual to curtailment of subsidies.
Can there be energy justice when more than 400 million people in the country remain deprived of primary energy? Unless the phenomenon of climate change succeeds in replacing the inequitable and consumptive oriented growth pattern with a more sustainable and equitable energy structure, energy justice and climate justice cannot be achieved. In a class society, justice is also a class justice.
Energy or climate is no exception. For example according to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization non-vegetarian diets cause more GHG emissions than either transportation or industry. Yet the life styles and diets of affluent and less affluent nations are not on the agenda for global climate negotiations.
In developed countries consumption of households accounts for 2/3rd of electricity generation whereas in developing nations consumption by industrial, agriculture, and commercial sector accounts for 3/4th of electricity generated. Still high energy households are treated as non-negotiable and developing countries’ livelihoods supported by small industry and marginal farming is under constant scrutiny.
SOUND AND FURY FROM THE WRONG END
When these islands of affluence whether at global, national or social level create most of sound and furry if not tamasha about energy usuage and climate change, it becomes imperative to guard against their real motive. India has already witnessed how games like “cricket” and Common Wealth games have been used as “money making” tamasha by India’s rich elite of corporate, politicians and middlemen. Another money making racket is now being created at global level through carbon trading business in the name of climate change. India and other developing countries occupy negligible space in the field of carbon emission compared to USA, Germany and other developed countries yet we are also in the game of multi billion carbon trading business in so called green world. Al – Gore, the formerUS Vice-President and winner of Nobel Prize for green movement, became the first carbon billionaire through carbon trading business.
In India, we find TV shows by so called “green” campaigners comprising Corporate Managers, Film Stars, TV anchors, a foreign auto-makers etc etc as sponsors. Such shows have become a common feature where more than climate change, the hidden agenda is mostly corporate objectives of purely commercial nature. Indian elite, the biggest polluter, has all of a sudden become nation’s conscience on climate change.
IDEOLOGICAL BIAS
In short, there are no two questions about the impact of GHG emission on global warming which has reached an alarming point. But equally if not more alarming feature is an ideological bias to the scientific & technological survey and mitigation steps to reduce GHG emissions and the class character of those who are spearheading this campaign, at global or domestic level. The ideological bias is to preserve the present lopsided consumptive growth paradigm instead of replacing the same with a more sustainable, equitable one.
The fight against climate change can succeed only by inducing a decisive change in social and economic relationship. It cannot be turned into an excuse for preserving the present energy structure as well as the existing regime of global finance capital. The nexus of rich nations and rich people in poor nations, aided by pseudo environment groups (funded by global corporates), bureaucrats, bankers, brokers are trying to exploit the critical issue of global warming by projecting exotic schemes to produce ‘ carbon free energy. Hundred of billions have already been wasted in the trading of carbon permits – most of them in transfer of tax revenues to a favored few. There was little concern expressed about climate in Copenhagen but mostly about of transfer of money. It was good for the world economy that some of the mitigation schemes could not be forced as the developing nations did not want to take on the sacrifices and restrictions on their growth, otherwise trillions would have been spent for making the rich nation richer and rich people richer in poor countries.
THE AGENDA
We have to stand against the trend of pro-corporate and pro-elitist bias in the campaign on climate change. To start, with at the global level India should resist the efforts of capitalist countries to divide the developing nations in two groups’ i.e. high growth and low growth countries. The developing countries should move as one group in the next environment summit to assert their rights in global carbon space in terms of per capita GHG emission as well as in the context of accumulated CO2 emission. The accumulated emissions of CO2 between 1850 and 2005 in the USA and European Union account for 56% of world’s total emission.
Why should the developing countries share their past burden for controlling the present rate of emission? Positive mitigation steps will have to be taken by the Developed countries first before imposing any on developing countries. The developing countries should have their own options to reduce emission based on efficient and rational utilization of energy with maximum possible indigenous resources and capabilities from within. In India the question is of ‘energy complacence’ by high energy consumers vis-à-vis ‘inaccessibility of energy’ to majority of the population.
Energy Conservation and improvement in energy efficiency should be treated as alternative Energy Source. Energy audit should be made mandatory in industry, transport, agriculture (for big farms) and high energy consuming office and buildings. Energy audit should not be made a tool as at present to give only incentive to industries but as a national agenda for enforcement like financial audit for establishments. Any change of resource say from conventional to non – conventional, from coal to gas or nuclear, must take into account COST as the over-riding factor. For example the UPA I or II Government till now has not come out with cost of nuclear power with imported reactor and imported uranium. The reason is simple.
After all how many in this country will afford to pay more than Rs. 8 per unit for nuclear power only because it is supposed to be CLEAN. If higher cost is a part of clean energy we cannot accept this for bringing more darkness on impoverished section. “Clean” or “green” energy has to be affordable. “Clean” or “green” energy may be fashionable terms coined for the cocktail circles, but it becomes meaningless to power/energy – starved people having purchasing power of less than Rs. 20/- a day. More than the green job, it is a ‘decent’ job as per ILO standard, for which the workers are yearning.
Those, politicians, corporates, bureaucrats and media who hardly showed any energy-consciousness in the whole night bonanzas in the name of cricket, have no business to fix the agenda for cleaner India.
The agenda to reduce carbon emission through rational and equitable energy usage has to be a people’s agenda and not a corporate agenda or foreign based NGO agenda. The agenda will be for “Energy Justice” and “Climate Justice” to save the world, with rational use of affordable energy and proper mix of energy resources best suited to the country
Source: www.citucentre.org
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