America
Modi-Obama's bulletproof summit: Was it climate-proof?
By
By Rajendra ShendeWhen US President Barack Obama alighted from his bulletproof car on
Rajpath on Jan 26, he was received by a steady drizzle before being
ushered to a bulletproof enclosure for viewing the Republic Day parade.
The colossal and colorful crowd showed climate-proof enthusiasm,
climate-proof because the rains were not able to rein in their fervor.
Historical
data of New Delhi's meteorology department shows that it rains on an
average one or two days in January and not more than two centimeters in
the entire month. It was not a really 'extreme' weather event but rain
in that morning gave two symbolic messages - first, the inspiring
leadership backed by whole-hearted people can adapt and even surmount
the rare climate event. Second, it was a gentle reminder to President
Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reflect if they needed to do
more and faster than what they pledged on earlier day to mitigate
climate change - the most formidable challenge of our times.
Bullet-proof
enclosures could protect one from the growing violence and terrorism.
The world however also urgently needs climate-proof economies. If we
have to act on the findings of the 2014 assessment reports of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have to act
decisively, out-of-box and not to harp on the principally stubborn and
ever unyielding positions on historic responsibility. The world
economies - small and big, developed and developing - have to stand
together to take climate challenge head on. The IPCC report warns that
the world will soon face 'severe, irreversible and pervasive' impacts.
Questions
arise like how can India and the US meet their mutually agreed
investment and trade targets in the midst of such impacts without
urgently acting on climate change and what would be the fate of Modi's
inspiring campaigns like Make in India, Skill India and 100 smart cities
projects, all aimed at enhancing job potential and fulfilling
aspirations of Indian youth?
The joint statement issued on the
eve of India's Republic Day by Modi and Obama is a rare example of
statesmanship where leaders are seeking to respond to such questions and
at the same time strategising to derive a multitude of benefits for
their respective people by agreeing to act on climate change. As per the
clean energy and climate package, the United States will provide
support to advance India's capacity to address climate change and shift
to a low-carbon and climate-resistant energy economy, while improving
air quality and energy efficiency by making $1 billion available to
finance renewable energy and new research and development institutes for
developing clean energies in India. The US also will help India improve
the efficiency of its air conditioning sector, which uses 40-60 percent
of India's electricity during the hot period, often contributing to
blackouts on the grid.
By declaring to make "concrete progress in
the Montreal Protocol this year" on the phaseout of hydro fluorocarbons
(HFCs), one of the six GHGs and more than 2,000 times more powerful
than carbon dioxide, the two leaders sought to spark off the
public-private partnership with A/C manufacturers to improve the energy
efficiency of their products to lower cost. Improving A/C efficiency in
India can save enough electricity to avoid building 120 medium-sized
power plants by 2030, according to Lawrence Berkeley energy lab in
California.
What's more, the two leaders recognized the need to
use the institutions and expertise of the Montreal Protocol to reduce
consumption and production of HFCs, while continuing to report and
account for quantities reduced under the UNFCCC. Such approach smartly
skirts the need for renewed negotiations to get early benefits from the
existing and successful treaty of the Montreal Protocol. After all,
early action on HFCs with high global warming potential but shorter
atmospheric life time will avoid up to 0.5°C of warming by 2100, as per
the United Nations Environment Programme.
If done quickly, phasing
out HFCs can avoid up to 200 giga-tonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2e).
This is more than 10 percent of the climate mitigation needed to stay
below the 2°C warming above pre-industrial levels. If the CO2 mitigation
from improved energy efficiency of HFCs using air conditioners were
added, the world would avoid more than one degree of temperature rise,
apart from reducing the air pollution.
The two leaders in New
Delhi engaged in extraordinary 'start-up' of their climate-venture. They
could do more considering the climate-proof cheers they received. The
applauds on 'bear-hug' should not make their venture complacent and
cheers heard from Obama's 'Bollywood' dialogues should not let the
climate pledges drown in the history. India-US partnership is sculpted
to do much more.
An opinion survey conducted by the New York
Times and Stanford University shows that a majority of Americans,
including Republicans, consider climate change a pivotal issue in the
coming presidential elections. India is on big way to transform its
energy scenario by embracing energy efficiency and renewable energy. The
Obama-Modi summit can accelerate a climate-proof world.
(Rajendra
Shende is chairman of the TERRE Policy Centre and former Director of
the UNEP. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at
[email protected])