CLIMATE CHANGE-INDIA: Tackling Transfer of ‘Green’ Technology

• by Ranjit Devraj (new delhi)
• Friday, July 24, 2009
• Inter Press Service

U.S. negotiators led by Todd Stern have continued talks with Indian officials even after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew out on Tuesday after a five-day tour of India. Clinton’s agenda was focused on security and climate change issues.

'The crux of the matter is free flow of green technology between North and South and this is especially so in the case of India,' said Arabinda Mishra, the director of the climate change division of the New Delhi-based The Energy Research Institute (TERI).

Mishra says the Indo-U.S. negotiations are significant given political leaders from both sides seldom sit together to find ways of getting around intellectual property rights (IPR) issues and collaborate on green technologies.

'So far as India is concerned, it is at a stage of development where maintaining growth cannot be compromised, especially since the lives and well-being of more than a billion people are involved - and this has been forcefully conveyed to the U.S. side during Clinton’s visit,' Mishra told IPS.

At a joint-press conference with Clinton on Jul. 19, Jairam Ramesh, India’s minister for environment, said that India’s position was 'clear and categorical that we are simply not in a position to take any legally binding emissions reductions.'

That statement appeared to be an attempt to counter domestic criticism that India had capitulated at the Major Economies Forum and at the G8 summit at L’Aqila, Italy, by endorsing the Forum’s climate declaration on capping a global rise in temperatures to two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

India has consistently demanded that the industrialised nations must first commit to drastic reductions in emissions before it considers legally binding commitments. Along with China, India has been under pressure to cut down carbon emissions.

'There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have been among the lowest emitters per capita, face to actually reduce emissions. And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours,' Ramesh told Clinton referring to the carbon tariffs under consideration by U.S. Congress.

At an earlier meeting of the Forum, India and China refused to accept emission cuts until the 40 industrialised countries, which together account for 80 percent the world’s emissions, agree to reductions of between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels. The G8 countries have only agreed to cuts between 1-14 percent while asking developing countries to halve their emissions by 2050.

Mishra, however, said there was reason for hope given industrialised countries have conceded that financial arrangements, including a ‘green fund’’ proposed by Mexico, needed to be made so that mitigation and adaptation to climate change can be scaled up in the developing countries.

'However, this calls for genuine interest, even enlightened self-interest, in removing the barriers to technology flows. Green funds meant to develop clean mechanisms must be seen as entitlements rather than extensions of overseas development assistance (ODA),' Mishra said.

'Action on climate change cannot be based on conditions,' said Shyam Saran, India’s chief envoy on climate change said while speaking at a recent seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. 'Once we start going in that direction, it means we start going for protectionism under a green label and it is harmful to India’s interest in seeking sustainable development.'

'In international negotiations, we have said that climate change is a challenge which must be dealt on its own, through a supportive global regime,' Saran added, outlining the stand India is likely to take at the conference of the parties (CoP) in Copenhagen in December 2009.

India’s policy makers are keen that a multilateral financing mechanism, both for adaptation and mitigation be set up as envisaged under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC). Such a mechanism would enable transfer of funds or grants and disbursals could be governed by a multilateral structure constituted by parties to the UNFCCC.

A report by the International Energy Agency, released in 2007, suggested that small-scale operations with relatively low efficiency, often driven by poor quality ore and coal, continue to flourish in India and China. According to the IEA, about 56 per cent of the surge in emissions between now and 2030 will be from India and China.

Energy analysts estimate that India’s electricity, transportation and industrial sectors would together gobble up a billion tonnes of coal annually within a decade - far more than the current 450 million tonnes. It is in this area that India is looking for cleaner and more efficient technologies that are also affordable.

India has already drawn up an ambitious National Action Plan with a goal of cutting emissions by 20 per cent in its 11th Plan (2007 -2012), but it has demanded the creation of an enabling international regime that recognises international responsibility.

At the Copenhagen conference, India plans to push for results which are 'ambitious, comprehensive but, above all, equitable,' officials said. 'Without clarity on capacity building, funding and technology transfer for climate friendly technologies, India and the other developing countries are unable to give binding commitments on emission reduction targets.'

With its goals in sight, India, along with United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, will hold a two-day conference on 'Climate Change: Technology Development and Transfer' in New Delhi between Oct. 22 and Oct. 23.

The thrust of the conference will be to evolve mechanisms for international cooperation and collaboration that would aid the process of technology development, deployment and diffusion in developing countries, officials said.

The conference is expected to bolster support for the UNFCCC process and provide inputs at the forthcoming Copenhagen negotiations, to enable consensus on issues such as technology cooperation, development and transfer as part of the international policy dialogue.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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