Will India be criticised at COP21?

The much publicised climate conference in Paris has raised considerable hope that a tangible and scientifically proven solution will be reached by consensus for immediate implementation to avoid an impending climate crisis. However, one has to keep fingers crossed as there could be a conflict of interests between different countries in identifying remedial actions and agreeing on the appropriate measures for implementation.

While the diagnosis is perfect, the prescriptions are still uncertain. The question is whether the measures to combat climate change will result in a slow down in industrial growth? The fact is that such slow down in the industrial growth would inevitably cause huge setbacks to the developing countries, which have the need to increase growth, employment and income, more than the developed countries.

The other important intriguing point is as to who contributes more to the impending ecological disaster: Is it the developed countries or the developing ones? While it is extensively pointed out that the industrialisation by developed countries has led to greater emission of carbon dioxide, thus adding to the climate change — all may not entirely agree with this. Many think that industrialisation is necessary to sustain global economic growth and to fulfil the basic needs of people.

The view is that to reduce the pace of industrialisation and consequent rise in carbon dioxide emission, there is an urgent need to reduce the demanded growth for various products and services.

Obviously, the direct contributor to the growth is the population growth and developing countries in Asia, such as China and India and several countries in Africa, who are unable to control the population growth.

If Indian Prime Minister would advocate in the Paris climate conference, he would be confronted with the view that India is a big contributor to the impending climate crisis due to it’s inability to control population growth and the Modi government may even be accused of lack of will to check the population growth. It is said that India is likely to add almost the total population of Australia every year.

There is no doubt that significant technological developments have taken place in the world to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels for industrial growth by substituting with bio-technology processes. However, there is a limit, beyond which it cannot be done considering the current state of technology and the present world demand for products and services.

While Paris climate conference will certainly make an earnest effort to find a solution, the ultimate solution would rest with highly populous countries like India and China as well as in Africa.

— The reader is an Indian founder trustee of an NGO based in Chennai, India.