INDIA CLIMATE WATCH – MARCH 2010 (Issue12) 

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Comment: Earth Hour 2010
India accepts CA with reservations – special focus on Chindia and UNFCCC
Shyam Saran demits office; India on lookout for key negotiators after Ghosh & Dasgupta quit
MoEF splits into Forests & Wildlife
Chindia co-operation for environment
Chindia MOU & bilaterals – analysis
Global Warming casts its shadow upon Kerala
Climate events round-up for March 2010

Editor:
Malini Mehra

Research & Reporting
Kaavya Nag, Somya Bhatt, Pranav Sinha, Malini Mehra

MoEF to spilt traditionally clubbed wildlife and forestry divisions into two. Process officially approved by PM

India accepts CA with reservations – special focus on Chindia and UNFCCC

After months of dilly-dallying on whether or not to put its name into the Copenhagen Accord, India finally allowed for a conditional association. In full coordination, and just a day after, China too asked for its name to be put under the accord conditionally.

While both countries were key players in drafting the Accord while in Copenhagen, they soon distanced themselves from it, maintaining that the Accord was undoubtedly a political exercise.

In his letter to the then Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer on March 8th, key Indian negotiator R.R. Rashmi made clear three points;

1)      The Accord is a political document and is not legally binding.
2)      The Accord is not a separate and third track of negotiations outside of the UNFCCC
3)      The purpose of the Accord is to bring about greater consensus on the existing two-track UNFCCC process, and to ‘facilitate the ongoing two-track negotiations under the UNFCCC…’.

Rashmi further indicated that India would be willing to be listed in the chapeau of the Copenhagen Accord, given the understanding that neither the Accord nor portions of it would become a new track under the UNFCCC negotiations. And neither would it be included in any part of the negotiating text.

Just a day later, Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh address Parliament, explaining why India has acceded to the Accord. He indicated that the government believed, that acceding to the Accord would ‘strengthen our negotiating position on climate change’.

Similarly, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said ‘it is neither viable nor acceptable to start a new negotiation process outside the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol’. But China too, on 9th March, agreed to have its name included in the Accord, with the Director General of China’s department of climate change Si Wei confirming that the UNFCCC could include its name in the Accord.

A Ministry of Defense annual report clearly highlights tensions on China’s modernization of military forces along the northern borders. Nevertheless, India and China have rapidly moved towards convergence on climate-related issues. With both countries pursuing high-growth development pathways and refusing to accept any legally binding emissions under the UNFCCC, their climate-relationship continues to be cemented.

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu reportedly told Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, that China regards cooperation in the field of climate change as the most successful example of bilateral cooperation with India.

This has been evident ever since the two countries signed an agreement to address climate change, and teamed up along with two other developing giants to form the BASIC group.

Bilateral cooperation has charged ahead with the two countries meeting in end March to chart out their future course of action. This round of talks will be followed up with two more rounds in April and May.

Shyam Saran demits office, India looks for new negotiators

As reported earlier, Shyam Saran – the Prime Minister’s special envoy on climate change – demitted office on 14th March 2010. Mr. Saran resigned from the post on February 19 reportedly after having differences with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh over India’s climate policy.

India had shifted its stance on climate change policy—from one that out and out refused to take on any binding emission reduction targets to a more accepting stance of taking on voluntary cuts in emissions intensity. All this, within a calendar year. The move effectively shocked old guard bureaucrats and policy-makers, who had, up until then, been the sole drivers of India’s climate policy.

With this, speculation over the reconstitution of the Prime Minister’s Panel on Climate Change has also become stronger. Union minister (of state) for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, has reportedly dropped Prodipto Ghosh and Chandrashekhar Dasgupta — his most vocal critics — from the suggestive list of members on the negotiating team, which he forwarded to the PM. The two veteran ex-bureaucrats along with Saran, often held dramatically different views than Ramesh on what India’s negotiating position should be at the international climate talks.

This move, as well as statements to the press by Ramesh, have sent out clear signals that Ramesh believes bureaucrats must not be able to sway national policy based on their beliefs. In effect, only those officials who are willing to follow a more flexible approach at the negotiations are welcome to remain.

It is expected that a new negotiating team will be in place for the next round of climate talks which begin in Bonn on April 9th. The MoEF had approached Ajay Mathur, the director general (DG) of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to represent India in Germany. However, Mathur was not keen on donning the role of a chief negotiator, considering his work at BEE was likely to suffer. The new list of negotiators is expected to be short listed by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The government also plans to create an inter-ministerial body coordinated by the climate change division at the department of science and technology to resolve contentious scientific issues on the impact of global warming on India. This body will complement the efforts of the environment ministry, but concentrate on sorting out differences of opinion between experts on the actual impact of climate change on India’s monsoon, forests and farming systems and see that whatever input we present internationally will be unanimous.

India-China team up on environment

The two major developing giants India and China, particularly given their rapid and escalating rates of growth, are likely to be two of the largest resource users in the years to come. Given this, ambitious scientific and economic cooperation between the two is essential in order to combat the effects such development will have on climate change and biodiversity loss.

While possibly not for such egalitarian reasons, India and China’s growing environment-related cooperation is a step in the right direction. The growing bonds of environment and climate cooperation are a stark contrast to the bitter military disputes in the past. But after forming the group of BASIC countries, the first bilateral relations on environment which began on 26th March, are further cementing Chindia’s green relations.

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu met with Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh to discuss cooperation in forestry and wildlife, application of biotechnology in agriculture, environment management and climate change. Ramesh indicated that forestry and agriculture dominated the discussions.

China’s plans of increasing artificial forest cover by 4 million hectares each year seem to have inspired India, which is ten times as slow, at 4 million hectares in ten years. China currently has the maximum area under artificial forest cover for any country – over 53 million hectares – according to statistics released by the State Forestry Administration (China). Plans are to increase area under forest cover from 18.21 percent in 2008 to 26 percent by 2050, and plant 40 million hectares of forest over the next ten years.

India’s own aspirational target is 30 percent forest cover. Currently and according to government figures, ‘tree cover’ in India is pegged at 20 percent, and after the talks, seems to have gained some inspiration from this high level of Chinese ambition.

A high level team is scheduled to visit China in April to discuss possibilities for forestry research, surveys and management.

While BT crops and their related issues were discussed, wildlife protection was also an area that was touched upon.

Eight researchers from across the world have incidentally published an appeal for greater scientific cooperation between India and China in the journal Science. The report comes close on the heels of this bilateral between the developing majors. The report calls for ‘more earnest cooperation between the world’s two most populous countries’.

ChIndia MOU & bilaterals – analysis

China India’s ‘Bhai-Bhai’ cooperation on Climate Change reached the next level in late October last year, when the two sides signed a five-year agreement to jointly fight climate change and negotiate international climate deals. The partnership is also expected to strengthen their bilateral dialogue. The agreement, which came ahead of United Nations climate-change summit held in Copenhagen in December 2009, was signed by the Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh and China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Vice-Chairman Xie Zhenhua. China’s NDRC and India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests will be designated authority for implementation of this agreement. The cooperation is also important in terms of negotiations as there is virtually no difference between Indian and Chinese negotiating positions on international climate treaties, said Ramesh in a statement.

Highlights of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA)

·         Hold ministerial consultations to deepen mutual understanding, strengthen coordination and enhance cooperation, and conduct regular exchange of views
·         Establish an India- China Working Group on Climate Change. The Working Group will hold annual meetings alternately in China and India to discuss respective domestic policies and measures and implementation of related cooperative projects.
·         Agree to strengthen their exchange of views and cooperation on mitigation policies, programmes, projects, technology development and demonstration relating to greenhouse gas emission reduction on following: (a) Energy conservation and energy efficiency (b) Renewable energies (c) Clean coal (d) Methane recovery and utilization (e) Afforestation and sustainable management of forests and ecosystems (f) Transportation (g) Sustainable habitat.
·         To enhance cooperation in the area of adaptation recognize the equal priority of adaptation and mitigation in tackling climate change

Experts from both sides who participated in a workshop, shared their respective national action plans to tackle climate change including domestic initiatives, issues in multilateral negotiations (mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and finance) and outlook for the Copenhagen conference in December 2009.

In order to take forward the bilateral cooperation in tackling issues of climate change, India and China held talks on 26th March 2010 to chart out future course of action. During the visit, Vice Premier of China Mr Hui Liangyu regarded Climate Change as the most successful example of bilateral cooperation. He said,” We will be exchanging ideas on what more we need to do.” As part of the cooperation, Ramesh will be visiting China April 10-11 and May 7-9 to attend meetings related to climate change. Recently, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh also announced an agreement with China for glaciological studies would be finalised soon as shrinking glaciers is a big area of cooperation.

Global Warming casts shadow on Kerala

Kerala- ‘God’s Own Country’ has been witness to the effects of global warming in past, in the form of changes in rainfall pattern, depleting groundwater and rise in mean annual temperatures among others. With its 550km of coastline, Kerlala has already been predicted in IPCC reports to be one of the worst affected  from increasing sea levels and drying up of fresh water resources.  By mid-March this year, temperature across the state rose to unprecedented levels, leading to more than 20 cases of severe sun burns . The highest temperature recorded was 42 degree centigrade from the Palakkad district , and at a time of year when temperatures never rose to more than 37 degree C in the past, leading to a state of panic amongst the locals as well as the state officials.

A disaster management team was sent by the state government soon after the cases were reported . Later in the month, members of the state assembly agreed  on setting up a task force with short and long term goals to combat the effects of climate change. Finance and revenue minister KP Rajendran announced a fund of Rs 15 crore for relief activities and fight against the looming danger of drought. Chief Minister V.S Achuthanandan has commissioned the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) at Thiruvananthapuram to carry out a detailed research of climate related variations in the state and submit a report that will help formulate effective adaptation and mitigation strategies for the state.

EVENTS ROUND UP FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH 2010

1.      2, 3 and 4 March, 2010, Methane to Markets Partnership Expo, New Delhi: Organised by US EPA, Govt of India and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce (FICCI) this expo was attended by people from diverse backgrounds ranging from project developers and financers, policy makers, manufacturers and vendors and industry representatives. The programme included discussions on key methane capture technologies and policy, methane marketplace and government and industry partnerships.

2.      4 and 5 March, 2010, Conference on Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission-The Way Ahead at World Trade Centre, Mumbai: In view of the importance of announcement of the National Solar Mission by GoI Solar Energy Society of India and Electronics today jointly organised this two conference which witnessed global participation and many key issues related to solar power production, policy, technology and implementation were discussed.

3.      5 and 6 March, 2010, Climate Change and CDM opportunities, Hyderabad: This Workshop on climate change and clean development mechanism opportunities in industries, urban infrastructure, buildings, railways, municipalities, agriculture was organised by CCCEA and Siri Energy with the aim of familiarising the participants with the key issues and opportunities in CDM post Copenhagen.

4.      18 March, 2010, World Renewable Energy Technology Congress and Expo 2010, New Delhi: With the central theme of Global Technology Cooperation for Renewable Energy the expo aimed to supplement the efforts of the government by providing a platform to showcase opportunities in the Indian market for global players.

5.      24 March, 2010, Youth Interaction at the British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata: This interactive meet was attended by Young journos, NGO representatives, students of the JU Global Change Program, and Environment Science

6.      25 March, 2010, CII meet on Climate Change, Kolkata: CII, Eastern Region, organised a panel discussion on how to strengthen NGO business partnership to cope with the challenges being thrown up by climate change, according to a CII-ER release. The keynote address was given by Mr Fergus Auld, First Secretary, Climate Change & Energy, British High Commission. Among other speakers were Mr Debal Roy, Chief Environment Officer, Government of West Bengal; Ms Malini Mehra, CEO, Central For Social Markets; Mr Subhas Dutta, green activist; Mr Ram Agarwal, Chairman, West Bengal State Council and Director S R Batliboi & Company; and Mr Sanjay Wadhvani, Deputy High Commissioner, British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata.

7.      29 March, 2010, National Seminar for post-Copenhagen: Immediate task for India, Hyderabad: This was a Seminar for media personnel at the Engineering Staff College of India, Hyderabad.  Organised with the aim of providing an opportunity to the participants to further strengthen their knowledge base on this most important topic of current times to help them educate and inform the public effectively.