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| Editorial: Climate squabbles |
| Business Standard / New Delhi Nov 21, 2008, 00:13 IST |
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The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, linking the occasional haze (dubbed as atmospheric brown clouds) over cities in India and other Asian countries with global warming, has raised a controversy that adds a new element to the divide between the developed and developing world on the issue of climate change. The potential environmental impact of brown clouds, attributed in the report to the burning of traditional fuels, including firewood, cow-dung and coal, has been interpreted variously by different interest groups to suit their stated positions on climate change. While the West has somewhat predictably projected it as a substantive factor in global warming, India and other countries which are sought to be put in the dock with this argument brush it aside as just another ploy to get at them in the blame game for environmental degradation, and impose mandatory curbs on their emissions. India has steadfastly refused to accept binding emission reduction targets, arguing that the developed countries have caused global warming and they should, therefore, shoulder the economic burden of reversing it. In any case, the phenomenon of brown clouds is not confined to India or China, and is observed, in some form or another, in Africa, Central Asia and South America as well.
Indian environmentalists, even as they discount the charge that brown clouds aggravate global warming, concede that they are injurious to health and pose other problems as well because of their dimming effect on daylight. The chief contention is that brown clouds, formed largely due to soot and other pollutants clinging to dust particles in the air, is a localized, mostly urban phenomenon and cannot be equated with green-house gas (GHG) emissions that cause global warming. While the brown clouds get washed down with rain, the carbon dioxide and other GHGs mix freely in the atmosphere, irrespective of the place of origin, to damage the protective ozone layer and cause a rise in the earth’s temperature. The linking of the use of traditional fuels with brown cloud formation is misconstrued as these fuels are used chiefly in rural areas, and less so in urban centres; in any case, there has been no abnormal increase in their use in recent years.
Nevertheless, the controversy over the brown clouds is likely to endure, at least till the next round of global talks on combating global warming under the aegis of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), scheduled for Poland next month. India has suggested in a note that the developed countries should contribute at least 0.5 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) annually to support the adoption of cleaner technologies by the developing and least developed countries. Pressing for such an arrangement will be a component of the strategy of India and developing countries to fend off pressure for taking on binding emission reduction targets in a new accord on climate change, which will succeed the Kyoto protocol after it expires in 2012. But it may not be a very practical demand, since much of the ‘clean’ technologies are owned by companies who will naturally look for commercial terms.
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