Carbon trading is the biggest environmental scandal, says Indian climate activist
Rich economies are evading their responsibility to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by shifting the burden to poor nations in return of small monetary payments, says activist-columnist Praful Bidwai.
New Delhi: “Carbon trading is a perverse market based regime,” said Indian environment activist-columnist Praful Bidwai, drawing attention to the recent crisis in global climate negotiations and climate retrogression in domestic economies.
- Praful bidwai delivering a lecture in New Delhi on January 5, 2012/ Photo credit: OneWorld
He was delivering a lecture on “Climate talks in Deep crisis: What was done at Durban” organised by leading development research institute Council for Social Development in New Delhi on January 5.
The talk was chaired by former Foreign Secretary of India, Prof. Muchkund Dubey and attended by representatives from research, academia and the grassroots movement in climate change.
The idea behind carbon trading is instead of reducing carbon emissions themselves, rich nations shift the burden to poor nations in return of meager monetary benefits. Instead of $200-250 per tonne of carbon that is necessary to bring about radical shifts in the carbon budget for the developed and developing countries, the price paid is of the order of $5 per tonne, noted Bidwai.
Disaster at Durban
The recently concluded climate change summit at Durban, South Africa was the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Convention. Around 194 countries gathered to focus on ways to curb ever-rising global carbon emissions and seek a new commitment to the Kyoto Protocol to fight climate change.
Bidwai denounced the reports claiming that the Durban summit was a victory for the global South for pushing issues of equity on the Durban agenda and in succeeding to take forward a new binding agreement. “Instead, it succumbed to climate apartheid, writing a death sentence for Africa, small island countries and poor and vulnerable nations,” said Bidwai.
The summit failed to deliver on its main objectives for quick and urgent climate change action which has been delayed until 2020. Instead of extending the life of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012, a new agreement – the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action imposes universal, equal and binding emission cuts on all nations, effective only after 2020.
Till 2015-2017, Kyoto will continue as a ‘zombie agreement’ after which it will be replaced with the new treaty. Delaying action on climate change is a crime of global proportion, Bidwai asserted.
He also raised concerns over the issue of equity in climate obligations and funding for poor nations to reduce emissions – issues that were comfortably overlooked.
Bidwai criticised India’s refusal to accept binding emission cuts on the pretext of its “right to develop”. He insisted on revisiting India’s National Action Plan for Climate Change with a renewed focus on food security, efficient resource utilisation and disaster management. India’s employment guarantee programme MGNREGA can be integrated with activities for climate change mitigation and adaptation, he added.
