Guest essay by Eric Worrall
India has presented a simple yet devestating demand at COP21: If we want India to cut CO2 emissions, we not only have to pay for their renewables, we have to help them get rich, by gifting them our technological advantages. India estimates the cost of the assistance they request to be $2.5 trillion.
According to the Telegraph;
… Yet we cannot commit, as some want, to a common global objective of restricting carbon and greenhouse gas emissions without an affordable means of doing so. There is still a huge cost involved in switching to new processes and greener technologies and we simply cannot afford to do it alone.
India is a developing nation, and we must first acknowledge her needs; the eradication of poverty must remain our priority. This is why India’s climate change commitments have been designed to address environmental concerns while also enabling us to meet the growth aspirations of our citizens and our overall development ambitions.
…
All these [Indian] efforts stand to make a huge impact but we do require international support to prioritise and accelerate our initiatives in accordance with the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR). If we are to replace coal, we need access to cleaner energy sources and technology at a viable cost. Even with the huge strides we are making in the direction of renewables, to do more, at a faster pace, we need help from developed nations. That’s why international contributions towards the development and generation of greener technologies should be increased at the earliest possible opportunity through global carbon pricing, and by incentivising companies in the developed world to invest and share their research and development in this area. Our preliminary assessment indicates that the implementation of our climate change pledges (the INDCs) up to 2030 would cost approximately $2.5 trillion. India stands ready to meet this commitment, but if we are to accelerate our efforts, then further financial support should be extended to poorer countries via the Green Climate Fund.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/paris-climate-change-conference/12042237/Indias-priority-is-poverty-not-climate-change.html
You know what? The Indian demand for help is actually completely reasonable. India have been asked to do something very difficult, so they’ve dutifully calculated how this could be accomplished, without derailing their ongoing and successful efforts to lift vast numbers of their people out of poverty.
The fact that the price tag for the required help is politically impossible for the West to meet, is not India’s problem. India gave Prime Minister Modi an overwhelming mandate at the ballot box, in the hope he can bring the economic transformation he achieved in Gujarat to the entire country. Nothing is going to stand in the path of Modi’s plans for economic transformation.
Naturally the green response to Modi’s uncompromising demand for continued economic improvement has been extremely negative, and in my opinion racist – they seem to want to try to bully India into accepting continued poverty, rather than working with India to see what can be achieved within the framework of their demands.
The Indian press has noticed this negative rhetoric and mockery, and is not happy about it.
NYT affronts India again, this time with a cartoon on climate change
The New York Times seems set for another controversy over its portrayal of India. It has now published a cartoon mocking the stand India has taken at the ongoing climate talks in Paris – making developed countries with higher per capita emissions effect deeper emission cuts than developing nations that typically have significantly lower emissions.
The cartoon that NYT, titled ‘India at the Paris Climate Conference’, shows a giant elephant labelled ‘India’ blocking a coal-chugging steam engine labelled ‘Paris Climate Summit’. NYT has also carried an article saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi could make or break the legacy that US President Barack Obama is attempting to build for himself over climate change towards the end of the final term of his presidency.
This is not the first time the New York Times has mocked India. In October last year, after India had become the first country to taste success in its very first mission to Mars, NYT had published a cartoon that showed a rustic man in a turban, labelled ‘India’, knocking on the door to a room labelled ‘Elite Space Club’. The man had a cow in tow.
Read more: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/everything-social/nyt-affronts-india-again-this-time-with-a-cartoon-on-climate-change/
I suspect when the COP21 shambles falls apart, assuming the failure is admitted, India will be painted as the villain. But in my view India is making the right choice – they want, they demand, a better future for their children, no matter what.
India has big ambitions, which they are well on the way to meeting. Many of those Indian expats you meet in your workplace are paying very little tax, thanks to generously interpreted export incentives promoted by the Indian government, incentives which provide easily accessible tax loopholes for offshore Indian workers. They are learning first world skills, and accumulating vast pools of personal wealth – wealth which will in the near future fund a wave of economic development and entrepreneurship, the like of which the world has never seen.
“Our preliminary assessment indicates that the implementation of our climate change pledges (the INDCs) up to 2030 would cost approximately $2.5 trillion. ”
So promise us $2.5 trillion now and we will get back to you when we need (want) more windmills (gold jewelry for our wives/children/mistresses).
There is a lot about Trump’s political posturing that I do not like, but many potential voters instinctively realize that he is above all a negotiator and he understands that you do not begin a negotiation from a position which you cannot afford to accept.
A successful negotiation begins comfortably within a zone which allows you to prosper, allowing you to give the other party some concessions as negotiations proceed.
COP21 appears to lay down initial terms which the western nations cannot afford and which are not very promising for developing nations. A non-starter.
Negotiations should be based on the known trajectories of the largest environmental stressors: population growth, air, soil, and water pollution by carcinogenic and toxic chemicals, and land use issues . C02 can be discussed as a hypothetical problem pending proof of net damage, which proof does not currently exist. This is a more reasonable starting place for both “sides”, and will offer a possible conclusion which could be positive for all.
sci
You are in the real word.
And COP-OUT21 – less so, I suggest.
Umm – m u c h less so?
Auto
Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy –
COP21 is basically a gigantic trade fair for the renewable energy/CAGW-related industries of the West…and China.
the fact the US has divided and conquered the developing countries in Paris, forming a “Coalition for Ambition”, which is even considering, tho unlikely to adopt, lowering the target from 2 degrees to 1.5 degrees celcius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century (unacceptable to India), suggests the US knows the temps aren’t rising as IPCC predicted and, as far as i’m concerned, indicates again that CAGW is nothing but a scam.
India should just walk away from the process and get on with developing, according to its own interests:
9 Dec: CNBC: The US advantage at Paris climate talks
by Gregory J. Pope and David S. Gee, Boston Consulting Group
In the past, many in the U.S. have opposed such agreements because curbs on greenhouse gases would put U.S. businesses, especially manufacturers, at a disadvantage. That’s no longer the case. Recent advances in technology that have made the United States a global leader in low-cost, low-pollution energy stand this argument on its head. We can gain a relative competitive advantage if world leaders are able to negotiate a new global climate agreement
Research we conducted with Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School found that reductions already are happening in a big way with the explosive growth of low cost unconventional natural gas and the scale-up of ever-more-competitive wind and solar power…
America’s unique competitive advantage in combating climate change comes primarily from the abundant reserves of low-cost natural gas we possess. While all countries are benefitting from the decline in the cost of renewables, the U.S. is way ahead of the rest of the world in developing new sources of low-cost clean-burning natural gas. This is a consequence of the unconventional, or “fracking,” revolution…
Even with the global decline in oil and gas prices, domestic industrial natural gas prices are 50 percent to 70 percent lower than in Western Europe, Japan and other countries with which we compete; industrial electricity prices are 25 percent to 50 percent lower here…
These advantages will persist over the next 10 to 20 years and they mean that no other country can make meaningful carbon reductions as cheaply as the U.S…
Thanks largely to the unconventional gas boom, the U.S. can reduce its carbon emissions in the near to mid-term far more economically than virtually any of our major trading partners…
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/08/americas-competitive-advantage-at-the-paris-climate-talks.html
there’s plenty of business for the whole world in this economic plan:
13 Nov: Livemint: Ragini Bhuyan: Five charts that show how India’s dependence on fossil fuels will increase
The IEA expects India’s oil demand to rise the fastest—by 6 million barrels per day to 9.8 mb/d in 2040
India’s coal consumption will reach 1,300 million tonnes of coal equivalent (Mtce) in 2040. This will be 50% more than the combined demand of all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and second only to China. Power generation and industrial usage will account for most of this consumption…
The transport sector alone is expected to account for two-thirds of the rise in oil demand with 260 million additional passenger cars, 185 million new two- and three-wheelers and nearly 30 million new trucks and vans being added to the vehicle stock. The shift from fuelwood to LPG for cooking in households will also drive this demand…
IEA expects an extra 315 million people to move to towns and cities by 2040. The agency also factors in India becoming the most populous country by 2040 and its economy growing by five times by 2040…
The construction industry will expand with the rise in urbanization: its constituent sectors such as steel and cement are particularly energy intensive. The infrastructure investment called for by programmes such as the Smart Cities programme will also hike energy usage. A shift to manufacturing, as envisaged by the Make in India programme, will also have an impact, as manufacturing industries consume more energy than services sectors…
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/Lc6lOXOiSwzSWPWF1yTvTI/Five-charts-that-show-how-Indias-dependence-on-fossil-fuels.html
Sounds to me like India has gotten their priorities straight.
Instead of sticking their hand out for $2.5 trillion, they should just tell the IPCC and the UN to shove off.
By asking for 2.5 trillion they ARE telling then to F.O. but in a polite and diplomatic way. India knows it will never see such handouts, but gets the hot potato out of their hands back into the UN/IPCC’s hands. Even if COP agrees for the sake of announcing an agreement, India knows full well – it will never see the coin. GK
So ballpark costs for a nuclear reactor is, let’s say, 10 billion dollars (where is Mike Myers when you need him?). Let’s also assume 2.5 trillion would buy 250. Now China is trying out dozens of advanced designs so I’m willing to bet they get at least one or two to work and mass produce them for their own market. Despite inventing most of it the west won’t be in a position to mass produce them and we’ll be way too expensive.
The west gives China 2.5 trillion and India gets 250 advanced nuclear plants. That ought to take care of a bunch of emissions and spread the wealth around IF lifting people out of poverty was the real goal. Of course the warmunists will probably not allow even advanced nuclear like MS/LFTR.
Great deal for India and China if they can get it. I have serious doubts that anything will happen at Paris but don’t worry folks, they’ll have more meetings that will give us one more “last chance” to save the planet next year etc.
Sigh.
“Fireworks” are coming. As the Friday 6PM “deadline” approaches, there will be the usual histrionics, walkouts, finger-pointing, and their favorite game of “climate chicken”. Then, there will be the hallejulah “breakthrough” sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Let the churchbells ring. The planet is “saved”.
India are the “Undeserving Poor” as described by the dustman Alfred Dolittle in Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion or the musical My Fair Lady.
I’m sure the UN would love to bilk taxpayers out of another $2.5 trillion dollars. However, who gets to share the proceeds is another matter.
If India, or anywhere else for that matter, wants to use technology developed in the west then they should expect to help pay for the CO2 emissions that created that technology.
There is a line of thought that seems to be saying that if the industrialised nations create CO2 and gain some benefit then they should be made to pay for inflicting that CO2 on an innocent world. Then they expect to receive that same benefit without having to contribute to the cost.
Nice point. And since AnthroCO2 has been and will continue to be a net benefit to the biome and to human society, the equation actually reverses. Don’t expect to read the news in your paper.
===============
And we haven’t even begun to consider the effect this will have on all the rest of the developing world. India is merely the 800# elephant in the room at COP21. Want them all to virulently and violently hate you? Then push through this insanity and condemn them all to continuing poverty.
But of course the Greens don’t want to actually fight CO2. They want to fight development.
. .It is a well known fact that people of Indian heritage FART way more than North Americans so…..What price shall they pay for their flatulent ways ???
The world as we know it will come to an end on Dec 11 2015 at 6 Pm ! The green Eco-terrorists will have lost their last chance to force the civilized world to self destruct and Obama will go to his grave knowing that his attempt to create a socialist Caliphate in America has failed and his only legacy will be one of a narcissist loon ,full of hate for America and her children !!
God Bless America !!
Climate activism is a self-indulgent hobby of the members of the ‘affluenza’ class – people so affluent that they have lost all sense of the harsh realities faced by the ‘ordinary’ people whom they feel compelled to control.
I just got back from Hyderabad and I can tell you they have real problems to address. Their water pollution I saw rivers you could walk on the trash. Litter in the streets so bad I could not believe it and the people I was with laughed that I would not throw out a can of coke. We need to quit worrying about a make believe problem CO2 and worry about real physical problems staring us in the face.
And that is the real crime about false CO2 warming. It has taken billions of dollars away from really needs to be cleaned up. When this all falls apart, I hope punishment for the perpetrators would be to put them all on chain games and go around the world cleaning up the real pollution by hand.
Modi has what is pitifully scarce in the Whitehouse: Common Sense.
“when the COP21 shambles falls apart, assuming the failure is admitted..”
You must be joking.
Eric Worrall,
I agree in principle. Devil is always in the details.
ROFL! The racist tack, really? And you want to paste all greens with that broad brush?
When US Republican congresscritters start climbing over each other send aid to India for anything and the Dems are the ones shutting down the government in response, you’ll have my complete and undivided attention.
Ohhh … my aching sides.
India is simply facing reality. It needs to bring its people out of poverty and to do that it needs a cheap form of energy. It is quite right to call out the IPCC for its stupidity. As for the NYT – perhaps it needs to get a life.
Here is my take on it anyway.
https://youtu.be/z9vKDcBUBlY
I also posted this one over at Bishop Hill taking up on the comments of that stupid ‘greenpeace’ troll who calls himself ‘gubulgaria’ or some such equally daft name. Coal is badly needed for energy in India is cheap and available.
NYT had published a cartoon that showed a rustic man in a turban, labelled ‘India’, knocking on the door to a room labelled ‘Elite Space Club’. The man had a cow in tow.
It is not in India’s nature to kow-tow.
Obama has been working on the Indians … and don’t be surprised that they will fall for whatever stunt Obama has pulled on them. China too. As long as Obama promises to give them all more and more, making America weaker in the process, it will all happen in Paris … the long awaited agreement signed, sealed and delivered… even though Bang Ki-moon acknowledged there is not yet any sign of warming.
Most amusing that Kerry and Obama think their personal involvement will alter the Indians’ way of thinking.
In Copenhagen, the Chinese covered their chagrin at the failure of the shakedown by pretending outrage at the neo-colonialist chicaneries of one Obama.
At Paris, the delegates made sure he, and others, couldn’t foul up the dance by getting rid of the Heads of State early. So now Obama, deaf to the tritones of dismissal, is sticking his fat and rotten oar in anyway.
It would be highly amusing if the Indians choose to publicize his efforts, and those of Kerry.
============
Hi Kim
Modi will answer the call from his people – not Obama nor the IPCC. There is a billion mouths to feed and keep happy in India. Obama is an empty vessel – always has been.
I googled but couldn’t find a source… appreciate a link. thx GK