Nuclear
facilities are unclean, unsafe and an economic liability throughout their life
span
October 2, 2015: Government has communicated India’s voluntary
Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for the period 2021 to 2030.
It has promised to “reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to
35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level” ahead of the adoption of the Paris Climate Change
agreement in December 2015. Emissions intensity refers to the ratio between
gross emissions and a country’s GDP at a particular point in time.
India’s 38 page long INDC is available at: http://www4.unfccc.int/
Notably, the implementation of the promises is “contingent
upon an ambitious global agreement including additional means of implementation
to be provided by developed country parties, technology transfer and capacity
building following Article 3.1 and 4.7 of the Convention.” United
Nations UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which India signed on
10th June 1992 and ratified it on 1st November 1993.
Under the UNFCCC, countries like India do not have binding Green House Gases (GHGs)
mitigation commitments in recognition of their small contribution to the
greenhouse problem as well as low financial and technical capacities.
While
it is true that “both
in terms of cumulative global emissions (only 3%) and per capita emission (1.56
tCO 2 e in 2010), India’s
contribution to the problem of climate change is limited”, the fact is that ‘Make in India’ kind of initiative paves the
for transfer of hazardous and polluting industries to India.
In
the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear disaster, while countries are moving away
from nuclear energy, India’s INDC shows that it is “promoting Nuclear Power as
a safe, environmentally benign and economically viable source to meet the
increasing electricity needs of the country.” The fact is that nuclear plants
spew cancer-causing pollutants into air and water. nuclear power does not meet “clean
energy standard”. It does factor in serious risks of exposure of radioactive radiation.
This radiation is toxic, persistent and long lasting pollutant. Nuclear power releases
radioactive carbon. They are carbon-intensive to build, since they require
enormous amounts of concrete, steel and carbon-based fuels for transport of
materials, workers, etc. The nuclear fuel chain necessary to support reactor
operations, which consists of uranium mining, milling, processing, enrichment
and fuel fabrication, then shipment of fuel to reactors, then reactor operation
and hundreds of years of radioactive waste storage results in large amount of unavoidable
carbon emissions. The fact of radiation being invisible and odorless cannot be used
to refer to it as safe and benign. Such propositions are an exercise in
sophistry. INDC has ignored that countries such as Australia, Austria, Denmark,
Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal,
Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Norway have no nuclear power reactors and
remain opposed to nuclear power. Germany has announced its plan to close all
its reactors by 2022. It disregards the fact that globally, wind power and solar
power has been increasing. It feigns amnesia about Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate
Change Mitigation (SRREN) which underlines that investment in renewable is advisable
because renewable energy is likely to account for as much as 77 percent of the
world‘s energy demand by 2050.
There is no denying the fact that
“Swachh
Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission)”, which is mentioned in
India’s
INDC merits involvement of all but the rate at which richer countries are
transferring their waste to India in myriad disguises with support from
government agencies makes such “Mission” by
government self-contradictory. So far Abhiyan has failed to stop movement of
waste from richer localities to poorer localities, from urban areas to rural
areas within the country and put a ban on dumping of waste by developed countries.
Eve as the country has been crying for cleanliness drive for long, Swachh
Bharat Abhiyan has failed to go beyond verbal gymnastics. Out of 180 cities
that have been monitored in India for SO2, NO2 and PM10 in only two towns
Malapuram and Pathanamthitta in Kerala met the criteria of low pollution.
India’s INDC makes
a promise about “Reducing emissions from waste” but government
continues to promote waste incineration based thermal power plants which
admittedly emits green house gases as per Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC adopted
in 1997 besides persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals. India had acceded
to the Kyoto Protocol on 26th August 2002. In the first commitment Parties
(37 industrialized countries and the European Community) agreed to reduce GHG
emissions to an average of five percent against 1990 levels as per the Protocol
period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. In the second commitment period from
1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020 as per "Doha Amendment to the Kyoto
Protocol" for Annex I Parties to the Kyoto Protocol who agreed to take on
commitments Parties agreed to reduce GHG emissions by at least 18 percent below
1990 levels in the eight-year period from 2013 to 2020. But the composition of
Parties in the second commitment period is different from the first and there are
38 Parties listed in Annex B in the Doha Amendment that have quantified
emission limitation or reduction targets for the second commitment period.
The ultimate objective of UNFCCC and
any related legal instruments is that the Conference of the Parties (COP) may
adopt is to achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the
Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at
a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the
climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient
to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food
production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a
sustainable manner.
UNFCCC’s text refers to “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the
climate system” which in
reality is an act of industrial warfare against climate and its allied
ecosystem whose impact has become glaring. Its continued relevance for the
communities of shared fate and global order is linked to the decision by the
richest countries to undergo mandatory de-addiction.
Notably, industrialized countries
have committed to implementing quantified economy-wide emissions targets for
2020. Developing countries like India are supposed to prepare Nationally
Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) that are in line with their national
development objectives. NAMAs aim to reduce their emissions below business as
usual by 2020.
Ahead of Paris climate meeting by
end of 2015, world’s biggest
polluter of GHGs, China has already submitted its voluntary INDC to the
Secretariat of UNFCCC. Now that India too has submitted its INDC comparisons
between its commitment and similar commitments by China, USA and EU will occupy
the centre stage. The other top
polluters, USA and EU have already submitted their INDCs. Paris agreement on
climate is significant for dealing with climate crisis from 2020 onwards.
China aims to achieve the peaking
of carbon dioxide emissions around 2030. It plans to lower carbon dioxide
emissions per unit of GDP by 60 % to 65 % from the 2005 level. If China
complies with these commitments, it would emit some 16-17 billion tones of GHGs
instead of emitting 22 billion tonnes in 2030 in a business as usual scenario.
In 2030, China’s per
capita emissions is likely to be about 12 tonnes.
Such announcements by the top
polluters are far from what is required based on scientific evidence in order to
limit global temperature rise by 2°C.
There was a need to cut emissions to the tune of 70 % below 2010 levels by 2050
to be on the path of limiting 2°C
temperature increase.
France is hosting the 21st
Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21) from November 30th to December
11th, 2015. COP21 aims to achieve a new international agreement on
the climate, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global
warming below 2°C.
The 2015 agreement will only come
into effect and be implemented from 2020. The Doha Amendment covers the pre -
2020 period, which is critical in the overall mitigation effort to hold the
increase in global average temperature below 2° C above pre - industrial levels.
Notably, China has entered into
an agreement with the USA wherein it has agreed to match its emissions with
that of the USA at an enormous 12 tonnes per capita per year in 2030, thus,
appropriating the carbon space between them. This in a situation wherein
corporations have emerged as the state and in another case, state is the
corporation. The state of affairs in most countries is moving in the same
direction because of the regulatory capture by the corporations.
On the other hand, satisfying
their energy demands on the face of lopsided economic growth the Asian
countries have increased their emissions solely depending on thermal powers.
Coal-based power provides 40 per cent of global electricity. It emits one-third
of global carbon dioxide. This is contributing to climate crisis. China has
become the largest CO2 emitters in the world followed by India, which is
responsible for 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per person per year.
Over 65 per cent of India’s power
generation comes from coal. But coal mining is destroying forests, water
sources and livelihoods of the poorest.
Notably, China’s total GHG emissions are likely to be 16-17
billion tonnes and its per capita emissions would be 12 tonnes by 2030. On both
counts, it is four times larger in comparison to India.
The submissions by top polluters
who also happen to be top profit makers has not made arrangements to pay the “ecological debt”
that global north owes to the south. The fact remains that there is north in
the global south-the elite of the southern countries like India who appear to
have seceded and joined the elite of the global north clouding decision making
based on common but differentiated historical responsibility.
Under the current global economic
system, the commodifying and monetizing of nature is not only interfering with
climate and allied ecosystems but is also depriving resource dependent
communities of their rights. Besides this it is also attracting private and
public corporations to control natural resources. This has created an episteme
that blindly bulldozes technical and market solutions as “real”
solutions.
For all the living species, human
civilization and for all existing institutions, demand of artificial persons,
the business enterprises is exceeding the planet's bio-capacity to a dangerous
level. Some estimates suggest that it has already exceeded by 20 percent.
For several years, the formal
initiatives to mitigate and adapt to impacts of climate change has largely been
unsuccessful because of an embedded insincerity of the institutions involved. They
fail to decode the shared fate in the global village which is faced with
climate induced emergencies and disasters. So far the existing institutions
have failed to make corporations in general and transnational corporations in
particular liable for “dangerous
anthropogenic interference”. These
artificial persons continue to enjoy the privilege of limited liability despite
being guilty of endangering human ecosystem which is the substratum for the
existence of living beings.
Notably, the First session of UN
Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s
intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations (TNCs) and other
business enterprises with respect to human rights is drafting a treaty for
mandatory regulation of TNCs and other enterprises. Such initiatives underway
since 1970s are germane to the efforts to combat TNCs contribution in causing
global warming.
India’s INDC missed the
opportunity of taking an ethical leadership by submitting a new, non-market,
climate finance mechanism is needed to support the formalization and expansion
of mitigation and technology transfer as a genuine solution to combat the
propensity of promoting free trade in carbon at the cost of climate system.
For
Details: Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance
(TWA), Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
E-mail-1715krishna@gmail.com, Web: www.toxicswatch.org
E-mail-1715krishna@gmail.com, Web: www.toxicswatch.org
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