India Close to Announcing Big Climate Change Shift in Lima

The United Nations climate negotiators are meeting once again, this time in Lima, Peru, where—as we have heard before—we will hear promises of making significant progress on climate change. All eyes are on India, which, like China, is often criticized for dragging its feet on developing a solid plan on climate change. Of course, those charges are often unfair, considering these two countries are the workshops for the world. If the U.S. had a real manufacturing sector, this country would be an even more massive polluter. With China taking bolder steps in addressing its carbon footprint, all eyes are now on India. The odds are that the world’s second most populous nation will make a big announcement this week at this week’s Lima climate change conference.

According to India’s daily Business Standard, the Indian government is keen on making “fresh and enhanced commitments to the international community.”

The recent agreement between China and the U.S. to tackle greenhouse gas emissions has apparently nudged the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commission studies to analyze and project India’s future greenhouse gas emissions. Past climate agreements have given developing countries such as India more leeway in formulating their emissions trajectory. In the joint statement with the U.S., China announced its overall greenhouse gas emissions would peak in 2030 and then start their annual decline. Business Standard’s sources in the Modi government are supposedly unimpressed with the joint U.S.-China declaration. Of course, that would mean India would have to up the ante, so all eyes are on the subcontinent as India determines its “peak emissions” year.

One reasons the constant harping on India’s carbon emissions comes across as hypocritical is that its per capita carbon footprint is one-tenth that of the U.S. (and four percent of the per capita emissions of Qatar, a country that loves to tout its “progress” on climate). As the argument goes, countries such as India and China are only trying to do what industrialized nations including the U.S. and Great Britain achieved for their citizens over the course of two centuries.

But rolling out a plan with teeth would also benefit millions of Indians, too. Projects that could help lower India’s carbon emissions, such as a proposed huge investment in solar, could help bring electricity to the 300 million or so Indians who have no electricity. Many Indians also rely on dirty and dirty fuels such as kerosene for light and cooking. Therefore, clean energy technologies such as solar and microgrids can engender massive social change in India through bypassing the grid—akin to how much of the world took a step forward by skipping landlines and adopting cellular technologies. What could come out of Lima this week is more than another government promising a goal to appease environmentalists and western governments; it could deliver progress and hope for the millions of Indians who lack energy access. Such a change could bring more economic opportunities, a better shot at education for young people and increased empowerment for women.

Leon Kaye is based in California and most recently worked for a renewable energy investment company in the Middle East. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.

Image credit: Leon Kaye