Indian Climate Policy - Global Commons Institute

INDIA’S ROLE IN CONFRONTING CLIMATE CHANGE | 37
I
INDIA’S ROLE IN CONFRONTING CLIMATE
CHANGE:
FROM VULNERABILITY TO OPPORTUNITY
Malini Mehra
ndia is on the frontlines of global warming. In a recent estimate, the World
Bank suggests that the developing world will suffer 80 percent of the damage
from climate change despite accounting for only one third of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere. 1 India is a case in point. The country is now the fourth largest
emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the world and accounts for 5 percent of
global GHG flows. But with 1.1 billion people – or a population of just under
one sixth the global total – its per capita emissions are a mere 1.7 tons of carbon
dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per capita, compared to 23.5 tons CO2e per capita for
the US. It has a significant aggregate footprint with an insignificant per capita
footprint. Neither fact diminishes its climate vulnerability.
Daily reports in India’s newspapers underline the country’s vulnerability to
global warming-induced changes in rainfall patterns, agricultural yield, glacier
melt, floods, cyclones, disease prevalence, and extreme weather events. These
are all consistent with international studies such as those of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that have underscored
India’s vulnerability to climate change. As a tropical country with a 7,500 kmlong
coast line, India is experiencing sea surges and salinization affecting
infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, livelihoods, and human health. The
encroaching salt water is already poisoning fields and making coastal agriculture
unviable. Salt is now being detected in growing quantities in lactating coastal
women, making breastfeeding impossible and affecting the health of the next
generation.
These impacts cross geographies and urban-rural divides throughout this vast
subcontinent. Climate impacts are manifest: From India’s northern tip of
Kashmir, where rising temperatures are playing havoc with local tourism and
agriculture; to the Sunderbans in its East, where people, mangroves, and tigers
are all suffering; to the rising waters of the Bay of Bengal; to India’s western
metropolis of Mumbai with its 0.5 degree climb in the local temperature in just
the past few years; and to Kochi in the South, where rising temperatures are
1 World Bank. World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change (Washington DC: World Bank,
2009).