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India and Climate Change



If you watched Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top-billed speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit on September 23, you might be inclined to say the South Asian leader is very serious about climate change.  I mean, we'll keep him to the sidelines!

A recent Worldwatch Institute study showed that climate change is the most serious threat India faces. As if that isn't enough, a recent  Worldwatch Institute‏ study showed that climate change remains "the biggest threat India faces today."

According to a recent Worldwatch Institute‏ report, in 2015, 2.3 billion people, or 15 percent of the world's population, will live in regions where climate change affects their land and their economy.
So, in fact, you might think that the Worldwatch Institute and India's Department of Atomic Energy are actually on the same page when it comes to making sure India is prepared for climate change.  You're wrong.

The Indian government seems determined to keep the U.S. out of the  Paris Accord , which is the centerpiece of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Modi knew that all eyes would be on him. As the need for sweeping climate action grows more urgent, the world has been desperately following what India will do next.  The first thing he should do, if he is serious about addressing the problem, is to pull his country out of the Paris agreement . I do not think that this is feasible.  The Paris agreement is an international treaty that is essentially binding and cannot be renegotiated.  Unless India is prepared to commit to withdraw its capitation scheme - which is a key part of the entire Paris agreement - then there is no possibility of renegotiating it on the international stage.  But that is a long term issue (indeed, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows well, India has a lot of ground to win back, especially its industrial base ) and will require a concerted decision by the government to get up and running again. The second aspect that Modi need to address is the question of carbon-capture and storage technology.

But anyone who’s looked closely at the past half-decade of energy policy in India should realize that Modi’s grandiose statements — and India’s place as a global climate leader — warrant some skepticism. ’When we’re talking about climate change, India is a major player, and it can do a lot to improve the situation," says Rajan Zed, director of the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. "But in the meantime, what is not right with the politics is that the Indian public is still completely in the dark about the impact of climate change."

In the last 10 years, India has reduced carbon emissions by an estimated 24 million metric tons. The Indian government has long argued that it is responsible for an enormous share of that reduction thanks to its pioneering efforts in renewable energy generation, but many Indians still doubt the government's credentials. "It does not tell the truth that it has put in over 50 gigawatts of capacity," says Sushil Pandey of the Centre for Science and Environment. "But of course, the government would never do something that is not in the name of the country.

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