Indian Climate Policy - Global Commons Institute

INDIAN PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS | 31
INDIAN PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF THE
INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE
NEGOTIATIONS
A
Prem Shankar Jha
s the Copenhagen climate change conference draws near, India has begun to
be singled out by the international media as a “spoiler” in the battle to save
the planet. This reputation stems from India’s insistence that it will not accept
ceilings on carbon emissions if this means sacrificing economic growth, and that
the industrialised countries – which are mainly responsible for the dangerous
concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere – must accept
responsibility for first stabilizing the atmosphere and then bringing GHG levels
down.
The criticism of India reached a crescendo immediately after the G-8 summit at
Aquila. In its July 11 issue, The Economist referred derisively to India’s demand
for “carbon space.” 1 Less than a week later, The New York Times linked India’s
recalcitrance on global warming to its determination to misuse the Indo-US
nuclear deal to make more nuclear weapons and missiles and also blamed India
for single-handedly sabotaging the Doha round of trade negotiations. 2
Indian policymakers and environmentalists resent these criticisms deeply. But
what they find even more difficult to swallow is the way in which the OECD
countries – having brought the world to where it is today – are now attempting to
tailor the agenda to their own political compulsions and ideological preferences
while paying lip service to the political and ideological necessities of developing
countries. Indians feel both hurt and bitter that India is being made a target
precisely because – being a functioning democracy – it feels both the compulsion
and duty to articulate developing countries’ point of view.
THE SOURCES OF INDIA’S RESENTMENT
To understand where India’s resentment springs from it is necessary to draw a
distinction between concern for global warming and concern for the
environment. Over the last four decades, Indian environmentalists have chalked
up a long list of successes in their battle to minimize the damage inflicted by
1 “Wanted: Fresh Air,” The Economist, 11 July 2009.
2 A.R. Lakshmanan, Indira. “U.S. Needs to Play its Cards Right in India,” New York Times, 14 July 2009.