China + India v. RoW
The FT has a long article about the changing attitudes in China and India towards the need to curb carbon emissions.
“Although China and India acknowledge their emissions are rising, they argue that, per capita, they remain a tiny fraction of those from developed countries. Moreover, China’s cumulative emissions are only one-third of those of the US and one-sixth of those of all the developed countries grouped in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to the World Bank. The cumulative emissions of India, which has a higher energy efficiency rate than China, are about one-tenth those of the US.
The initial reaction in both countries to international pressure has been to point to the refusal of the US and rich fellow-travellers such as Australia to sign the Kyoto protocol for mandatory emissions caps. “As the biggest developed country and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas, the irresponsible remarks and behaviour of the US government will only leave an impression of it being ‘heartlessly rich’,” sniped the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist party, in the wake of the UN report.
Gao Guangsheng, the director of China’s Climate Change Co-ordination Office, pointedly singled out Australia, population 20m, at a recent conference in Nairobi, saying that if it had as many people as China’s 1.3bn, its carbon emissions would total 8.6bn tonnes a year. China’s emissions are now about 1.3bn tonnes a year.
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The US and Australia in turn cite China and to some extent India to justify their own refusal to move on the issue, arguing that new caps are pointless until Beijing and New Delhi come on board. “Climate change to date is an area where the US and China seem locked in an unholy alliance of inaction, at least at the federal level,” says Elizabeth Economy, of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Beijing and New Delhi have already begun to rehearse their arguments ahead of any new global negotiations for a post-Kyoto accord. In an interview with the Financial Times, Palaniappan Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, reiterates what amounts to the country’s doctrine of its “right to develop”, a view also advanced by Beijing.
“We are prepared to assume our share of the responsibilities and obligations, provided the world recognises we have a right to grow and that means that we will consume large quantities of energy and, second, that we need to be given access to clean technology, including civilian nuclear energy,” he says. “If these two points are recognised, I have no doubt that India and other developing countries will come forward to assume their share of the responsibilities. But we are not the largest polluter: our carbon emissions are still very small.”
China is in the crosshairs of the global community more so than India because its economy has grown faster than that of its neighbour, is more reliant on heavy industry and is thus more energy intensive. In recognition of the problem, China’s top leaders have set stringent numerical targets for improving energy efficiency per unit of economic output by 4 per cent annually in the five years from 2006. So far, however, they have failed to meet the benchmark, an embarrassment for Beijing as it was one of only two numerical targets in the latest five-year economic plan.
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Both China and India suffer from acute air and water pollution. In 83 Indian cities for which air quality monitoring data are available, more than 84 per cent of the population was in 2004 forced to inhale poor, bad or dangerous air. Only 3 per cent had access to air that was rated good. China is home to 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, with dirty air causing the premature deaths of 400,000 people a year. About 340m people, about one-quarter of the population, do not have access to clean water.
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This means, as in the developed world, that both industry and consumers will need to be cajoled to change their ways. “It is the unbridled luxury consumption of its affluent classes that is driving the giddy rise in India’s greenhouse gas emissions,” maintains Praful Bidwai, a social and economic commentator. “The majority of Indians remain as frugal as ever in their use of resources. This makes it imperative that India move towards accepting deep cuts in emissions, in particular those relating to private vehicles, the profligate use of energy and water by the rich and the skyrocketing consumption of air conditioners, washing machines, microwave ovens and plasma and liquid crystal display television sets.” “