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Clinton s agenda in India

  • 14/04/2000

There is something truly wrong with the Indian media. The manner in which it went overboard with the recent Clinton visit is not the only thing. But its exclusive focus on the political dimensions of his visit , important undoubtedly, totally neglecting its economic, scientific and environmental dimensions, amounts to willfully keeping the public in the dark. The non-political dimensions of the Clinton visit were never hidden by the us government whose officials repeatedly pointed out that there are four key items of discussion: (a) military tensions in the region, (b) long-term Indo- us cooperation, (c) scientific cooperation, and (d) energy and environment. But the Indian media blotted out any reportage of the negotiations on the last two items. Which is truly sad because the environmental dimension, totally hidden to the public eye, has extremely significant implications for India's long-term economic and environmental future.

Clinton came to India with a key environmental interest. He wanted India to endorse something called the Clean Development Mechanism ( cdm ), vital for us government's climate change policies. In Kyoto in 1997, usa took on commitments to reduce the production of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming like carbon dioxide by 7 per cent over their 1990 levels. This has been virulently opposed by the oil and auto companies. In a multi-million dollar media campaign, these companies argued, firstly, that there isn't enough scientific certainty to say global warming is taking place (a highly questionable assertion given the strong global scientific consensus on the issue); secondly, that efforts to reduce the relevant gases would even increase the cost of eggs in the us apart from threatening the country's famous automobile culture; and that, finally, how can there be a global treaty to save the atmosphere which allows countries like India and China go scot-free without any commitments to reduce greenhouse gases themselves. Their arguments were immediately bought by the us Senate and in an unprecedented 97-0 resolution (there are only 97 senators), it told Clinton and his deputy Al Gore that the Kyoto Protocol will not be ratified until these concerns are met.

Over the last two years, Clinton has been trying to convince the Senate that the costs of meeting Kyoto targets are quite small if the emissions of these gases can be reduced in energy-inefficient developing countries like India and China lower the energy efficiency of a nation lower is the cost of reducing carbon dioxide, by some estimates costs could plummet from us $120 billion to as little as us $10 billion and for this it is seeking the 'meaningful participation' of India and China by accepting cdm . cdm is a mechanism by which us companies could financially support Indian companies with the incremental cost of importing more efficient technologies than they would otherwise import. For example, if a more efficient power plant costs Rs 110 crore as compared to Rs 100 crore, Indian companies could get a subsidy of Rs 10 crore under cdm . But the carbon dioxide reduced as a result would be used to account for usa 's carbon dioxide reduction targets (see p55: Spreading myths of money ).

Sounds great. But it is clear that North-South co-operation to prevent climate change cannot be built on such short-term economic considerations and needs a more robust framework. No country in the world has been able to delink its economy from generation of carbon dioxide because all countries continue to depend on fossil fuels. Therefore, as long as the world remains bound to fossil fuels, poor countries need the maximum 'environmental space' for their future economic growth. Keeping this in mind, the government of India has proposed 'equitable per capita entitlements' to the atmosphere as a principle for trading credits.

During Clinton's visit, the government of India was under intense pressure to endorse and accept participation in cdm , here and now. It would have been a great feather in Clinton's cap. But despite all the bonhomie and without the government getting any public support, because of media's failure to highlight the issue, did not yield. A group has been set up under the us department of state and Indian ministry of external affairs for further negotiations. Northern ngo s which were hoping that Clinton will deliver cdm and India. have already publicly criticised the Indo- us agreement as too weak and meaningless.

We, too, were very worried that the government might think cdm is too small a thing to annoy usa with given the larger issues of Kashmir and especially as former White House staffer, Kathy McGinty, working out of the Tata Energy Research Institute ( teri ) in Delhi for almost a year, has got the great industrial captains of the Confederation of Indian Industry, who never seem to see beyond their noses, drooling all over for cdm dollars. So the Indian government already has a powerful Trojan horse to contend with. But we were delighted to read the Indo- us agreement on energy and environment which clearly shows that the government has withstood the pressure.

Matters, however, do not rest here. The year 2000 is crucial becaus

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