by Jayashree Nandi
This interview was released in some editions of TOI the same day as the controversial letter of environment minister Jairam Ramesh to the PM was exposed. Even though the letter drew immense flak, Ramesh also shared certain strong domestic stances to deal with climate change and for the negotiations. Excerpts from the interview could give you glimpses in to forthcoming strategies including major emphasis on nuclear energy:
Deal or no deal, India will act domestically. It will upgrade its services in the power, industry, transport, building, and forestry to deal with climate change. And there would be no dilly-dallying about this because it will come as a domestic law with binding targets for 2020. One of them is to increase the renewable energy uptake from a dwindling 8% to 20% by 2020. Even while there is criticism internationally that India is playing foul by not accepting binding targets, our negotiating card would be massive work at home. The Union minister for environment and Forests shared his plans for strengthening India’s vulnerable areas to deal with climate change with The Times of India, ahead of the Copenhagen negotiations (COP 15).
Q. You said that India is going to be flexible; the 40% cut for developed nations can be brought down. Why do you think so? What will India’s negotiating points be?
A. The IPCC has said that to keep global temperature rise below 2 degree centigrade, the emissions has to cut by 25 to 40%. The lower limit is 25%. The developed nations including India have decided to keep the target to a 25% cut.
The prime minister and I at several occasions have made it clear India should be part of the solution. It will play a very proactive role. But, the question of legally binding targets for India is ruled out. We will take domestic actions with measurable outcomes. We have decided to make it part of a domestic law. There will be specific domestic targets by 2020 for performance improvement and efficiency in the power, transport, industry, building, and forestry will be part of the domestic law. So unilaterally and voluntarily we have decided on domestic obligations, which will be accountable to the parliament. If the developed countries are willing to discuss, this will also get reflected in the international negotiations but this would be short of accepting binding targets.
Q. So domestically we are going to have a law that would affect people in their daily lives and in dealing with climate change?
A. I don’t know how much it is going to affect people because it will be more in the efficiency improvement sector and in the area of energy intensity. But let us face it. India is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. We are already affected with frequent droughts and floods. The mean sea levels are rising. Many of our coal reserves are in forest areas and we need to cut trees to exploit them. We have to have a response to all this independent of COP 15.
Q. ISRO has climate of data of the past 20 years. With the initial data you received from them, what is the impact like on India?
They will give me a complete summary of the impact. We are stressing a lot on local documentation because all the impacts we are quoting now are by westerners. An important example is that America has a completely different estimate of black carbon emitted by India than that of ISRO’s study. ISRO study shows that India’s black carbon emissions are three times lesser than what the West has quoted. It is also far lesser than that of America. This is eye-opening, as this issue would be dragged in the negotiations and India will be questioned about it.
Q. What are your expectations from the US? Will they act in COP 15?
A. It is in India’s interest to bring US in to mainstream talks. It has not been part of the Kyoto protocol. Any international agreement without US will be meaningless.
Q. There has been a lot of debate on the introduction of Bt Brinjal. Do you think India really needs genetically modified crops?
A. They may be. Bt cotton has become a fact of life. It has dramatically catapulted in to the second position in the global cotton market. But Bt Brinjal is different. It is something that we are going to consume. Let me see what the public consultations leads to. I have already unveiled the plan of action and will hold extensive discussions after COP15, in January and February.
Q. There has been uproar against uranium mining in Meghalya, it is also going to start in Karnataka. How important is nuclear in you climate road map?
A. I was involved in the Meghalaya issue and had wriiten to the department of Atomic energy. The department has tried their best to address the fears and concerns of the people there. A white paper had been presented on the issue. Now it is up to the Meghalaya government.
Nuclear is the best solution to deal with climate change. It is a very important part.
Q. Most of the renewable energy technologies in India are exported out. What are you doing to make the domestic market favourable?
A. One of the commitments right now is to increase the consumption of solar, small hydel and wind from 8% to 15 to 20% by 2020 as part of the law. The law will announced in a few week’s time.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Coal power plant darkens pristine Alibaag
story by Pushpinder Singh
"Alibaag, Enjoy nature's beauty", scream the loud real estate hoardings in urban Mumbai. But people do lot more to nature's beauty than enjoying it as is the case with Alibaag.
One hour ferry ride from Gateway of India and then a fifteen minute bus ride gets one into the Alibaag town. On the road are the bungalows of rich and famous if one heads to beach south to the town. i instead went to the other side. The highway that connects Alibaag to Bombay, around twenty miles from Alibaag is a small town 'Poinaad'. and next to 'Poinaad' is cluster of villages with the names Shapur, Shahbaaj, Kamalbara ,Dhamapara ,Dheren. And right after villages is the massive Steel factory on both sides of the highway.
The villages have been in the limelight for some time now due to their iconic struggle against the land grabbers of the city. The villagers here are fishermen as well as farmers, their agriculture is irrigated by monsoon and they grow paddy during monsoon in their otherwise parched land. The farm land of villages is erstwhile marsh land of the near by 'Dharmatar' Creek which the English officers in 17th century converted into farm land by routing the tide water into small canals inward of land. These backwater canals mar the entire land here like veins; the sea water keeps coming up and going down in these veins like canals as if a huge heart pumping far in sea with a set frequency.
The fishermen in village use the canals as connecting routes to the sea. with the rising tide in evening they launch the small boats in the water and head to thick belt of Mangroves in Dharmatar creek. These mangroves, which line both northern and southern side of the creek, are rich in biodiversity and good source of fishes. The catch from here finds place on tables as far as in The Taj of Bombay. There is an amazing supply chain which does not need a separate transport chain, It uses pubic buses and ferries to take catch from this end to the other, with the transporters earning small commission, Fishermen a small money and middlemen in the city a huge margin.
But there are more examples of inequities in this land. The entire farm land that lies south to the Dharmatar creek is heaven not only for a self sustaining society but also to big things like Ultra Mega Power Generation Plants. The creek is geographically a perfect place to import coal on huge ships from foreign lands and the parched farmland is nice place to put a plant on.
TATA and Reliance are among the corporations, which are interested in setting up the power plants on this land and are in the process of acquiring land, though they have got it from collector but not from the real landowners, the farmers! The compensation being offered for the land is laughable. The resistance among the farmers and local residents is amazingly strong and united and is being lead by local people some of them doctors or accountants or clerks from these villages.
The story does not end with the resistance but it begins there, these lead campaigners from villages realise that resistance is not enough and sufficient tool to turn things their favor, Hence they also are innovating, for the energy solutions. The same energy for which the government is willing to import thousand tons of coal from Australia, The villagers argue, 'flows in the wind', The area has large wind potential and people want an official assessment of this potential from the government.
This movement as they love to call it has forced them to learn and understand things they would not bother otherwise like the energy sector economics, climate change science, political equations or just plain human ecology relations. Till whatever extent it takes they are willing to go, with those humble smiles on their faces for who so ever comes by and modest approach to life, eagerness to learn just to save the land they grew up in to save the air they have been breathing in and inheritance they have borrowed from their children, and stand tall as example in front of humanity that seems to largely ignoring them and continues to deny the 'change' that it must set for.
Pushpinder Singh is an environmental activist and works for Greenpeace India
--ends--
"Alibaag, Enjoy nature's beauty", scream the loud real estate hoardings in urban Mumbai. But people do lot more to nature's beauty than enjoying it as is the case with Alibaag.
One hour ferry ride from Gateway of India and then a fifteen minute bus ride gets one into the Alibaag town. On the road are the bungalows of rich and famous if one heads to beach south to the town. i instead went to the other side. The highway that connects Alibaag to Bombay, around twenty miles from Alibaag is a small town 'Poinaad'. and next to 'Poinaad' is cluster of villages with the names Shapur, Shahbaaj, Kamalbara ,Dhamapara ,Dheren. And right after villages is the massive Steel factory on both sides of the highway.
The villages have been in the limelight for some time now due to their iconic struggle against the land grabbers of the city. The villagers here are fishermen as well as farmers, their agriculture is irrigated by monsoon and they grow paddy during monsoon in their otherwise parched land. The farm land of villages is erstwhile marsh land of the near by 'Dharmatar' Creek which the English officers in 17th century converted into farm land by routing the tide water into small canals inward of land. These backwater canals mar the entire land here like veins; the sea water keeps coming up and going down in these veins like canals as if a huge heart pumping far in sea with a set frequency.
The fishermen in village use the canals as connecting routes to the sea. with the rising tide in evening they launch the small boats in the water and head to thick belt of Mangroves in Dharmatar creek. These mangroves, which line both northern and southern side of the creek, are rich in biodiversity and good source of fishes. The catch from here finds place on tables as far as in The Taj of Bombay. There is an amazing supply chain which does not need a separate transport chain, It uses pubic buses and ferries to take catch from this end to the other, with the transporters earning small commission, Fishermen a small money and middlemen in the city a huge margin.
But there are more examples of inequities in this land. The entire farm land that lies south to the Dharmatar creek is heaven not only for a self sustaining society but also to big things like Ultra Mega Power Generation Plants. The creek is geographically a perfect place to import coal on huge ships from foreign lands and the parched farmland is nice place to put a plant on.
TATA and Reliance are among the corporations, which are interested in setting up the power plants on this land and are in the process of acquiring land, though they have got it from collector but not from the real landowners, the farmers! The compensation being offered for the land is laughable. The resistance among the farmers and local residents is amazingly strong and united and is being lead by local people some of them doctors or accountants or clerks from these villages.
The story does not end with the resistance but it begins there, these lead campaigners from villages realise that resistance is not enough and sufficient tool to turn things their favor, Hence they also are innovating, for the energy solutions. The same energy for which the government is willing to import thousand tons of coal from Australia, The villagers argue, 'flows in the wind', The area has large wind potential and people want an official assessment of this potential from the government.
This movement as they love to call it has forced them to learn and understand things they would not bother otherwise like the energy sector economics, climate change science, political equations or just plain human ecology relations. Till whatever extent it takes they are willing to go, with those humble smiles on their faces for who so ever comes by and modest approach to life, eagerness to learn just to save the land they grew up in to save the air they have been breathing in and inheritance they have borrowed from their children, and stand tall as example in front of humanity that seems to largely ignoring them and continues to deny the 'change' that it must set for.
Pushpinder Singh is an environmental activist and works for Greenpeace India
--ends--
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