A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 261breathing problems and persistent colds and coughs. Walls and windowsof hutments in the village are covered with black spots. Accordingto one villager, paddy production is decreasing each year.Numerous fines have been levied against the plant for pollution since2001. Union leaders say that pollution has been reduced, but chargemanagement with running the plant’s electrostatic precipitator onlyduring the day, to save money.Some 90 per cent of the factory’s workers, mostly illiterate and fromneighbouring states, are temporary. Non-unionised workers get onlyusd 1.50 per day and sometimes have to work 16 hours a day on a nowork-no pay basis. No drinking water or toilets are available. Mostworkers, permanent staff and union leaders interviewed at the factorywere unaware of the CDM project and of carbon trading and its financialimplications. One local NGO worker had learned about the CDMproject only from the Telegraph, a newspaper published in Kolkata.Another CDM project of about the same size, aimed at using wasteheat from kilns and blast furnace gases from pig iron production togenerate electricity, is run by SRBSL in Durgapur, Burdwan. Most ofthe 1700 workers are contract labourers, who get only usd 1.30–1.50for 12 hours’ work, without the medical benefits provided for the 30staff. Releases of dust, smoke and gases from the plant again result inrespiratory problems among local residents, especially the very youngand very old. Workers’ living quarters are covered with a thick layerof coal dust. Water tables and paddy yields have declined, and pondsor ring wells always remain covered with a foul, thick layer of blackdust. Local farmers and labourers have also been deprived of what wascommon land used in part for cultivation. None of the people interviewed– the management representative, the union leader, factoryworkers or villagers – were aware of carbon trading.West Bengal polluting firms in other sectors are also cashing in on theopportunity to get carbon money. Jaya Shree Textiles in Prabasnagar,for example, has upgraded boilers and modified motors to reduce energyuse, but still pollutes the locality. Its workers remain uninformedabout the extra finance supplied by its CDM project.What about smaller projects – ones that don’t generate so many credits? Arethere any local objections to them?Some of the many biomass carbon projects planned for India arealso rousing local concerns. One example is the 20-megawatt RKPowergen Private Limited generating plant at Hiriyur in Chitradurgadistrict of Karnataka, which is currently preparing a Project DesignDocument for application to the CDM. According to M. Tepaswami,