India’s Stand on Environmental Issues

India’s position on global environmental negotiations is shaped by a clear principle: the developed world bears the primary historical responsibility for climate change, and developing countries like India must not be forced into binding emission cuts that would compromise their right to economic growth and poverty alleviation.

India signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol in August 2002. Under the Protocol, India, China, and other developing countries were exempt from mandatory emission reduction targets. The logic was straightforward: these nations had contributed very little to the greenhouse gas emissions accumulated during the industrialisation period — the very emissions that are now driving global warming and climate change. Critics, however, argue that this exemption is short-sighted. They point out that India and China, along with other developing economies, are rapidly increasing their emissions and will soon be among the world’s leading contributors.

At the G-8 meeting in June 2005, India made a pointed argument: the per capita emission rates of developing countries are a tiny fraction of those in the developed world. This is not a minor detail — it is the core of India’s negotiating stance. Following the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, India insists that the major burden of curbing emissions must fall on developed countries, which have accumulated emissions over a long period of time.

India’s international negotiating position relies heavily on the principle of historical responsibility, as enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC acknowledges that developed countries are responsible for most historical and current greenhouse gas emissions. It also explicitly states that “economic and social development are the first and overriding priorities of the developing country parties.” This is why India is wary of recent discussions within the UNFCCC about introducing binding commitments on rapidly industrialising countries such as Brazil, China, and India. India feels that such a move contravenes the very spirit of the UNFCCC.

India also argues that imposing restrictions on it is unfair when its projected rise in per capita carbon emissions remains modest. The numbers are telling:

• In 2000, India’s per capita carbon emissions stood at 0.9 tonnes.
• By 2030, they are predicted to rise to 1.6 tonnes per capita.
• Even at that level, India’s per capita emissions would still be less than half the world average of 3.8 tonnes in 2000.

Despite resisting binding commitments, India is not inactive. The Indian government is already participating in global efforts through a number of domestic programmes:

• National Auto-fuel Policy — mandates cleaner fuels for vehicles.
• Energy Conservation Act, 2001 — outlines initiatives to improve energy efficiency.
• Electricity Act, 2003 — encourages the use of renewable energy.
• Import of natural gas and adoption of clean coal technologies — show real efforts to shift towards cleaner energy.
• National Mission on Biodiesel — planned to use about 11 million hectares of land to produce biodiesel by 2011–2012.

India also ratified the Paris Climate Agreement on 2 October 2016. And it has one of the largest renewable energy programmes in the world. …