Is India eating its melting ice cream?
Posted on 02. Oct, 2009 by Leela Raina in India
Me with Ambassador dasgupta and CANSA members from India
I love ice cream and can never get enough of it. But what is intriguing is the Indian ice cream seems to be melting much faster than any other type of ice cream at the UN negotiations here at Bangkok.
Are we being really fussy and imitating the US and EU negotiators?
Are we also speaking without doing our “home” work?
Why can’t we lead by example? I am certain that we aren’t out of capacity, after all we are some of the best brains in the country coming together at these negotiations.
Let us analyse exactly what India is doing with regard to international negotiations:
So we are saying that we cannot shift to a sustainable path if we are given finance and technology transfer. But have we calculated the costs of a two degrees temperature increase on our economy? Have we considered what would the impacts be of short term increase of temperature in our own country (long-term is another story)? Before pointing out to anyone on their inactions, maybe we should be prepared for actions in our own country.
And this is not because the others are not taking leadership, this is because of the millions of people on our coasts.
Personally, I do not see my country doing anything to protect the vulnerable poor individuals who will probably bear the burden of these short term emissions.
Have we mapped and put Nationally Appropriate Adaptation Plan Actions (NAPAs) which are in line with our socio-economic factors such as the economy, gender, health and other human indicators? I dont think so. I don’t see this as something our politicians are taking seriously!
Has our parliament even considered this as a serious issue? Politicians are worried about their votes which they mostly get by advocating for bijli, sadak, and pani (electricity, road and water). Couldn’t these be renewable energy derived electricity generation, sustainable roads and infrastructure and sustainable water management, conservation and access? Doesn’t this translate into a stronger agenda for running a campaign?
Don’t you think that will win you more votes or make you an effective government? Don’t these issues actually give you more political competence given that Al Gore used climate change to do exactly that?
Politics and climate change not can but need to go hand in hand. Let us plan to educate our politicians with regards to that!
India , US and China in order with thier ice creams
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This is disturbing. Thanks for keeping us posted.
well if Prodipto Ghosh could question “who’s listening?” then we could ask him who’s listening to this. Somebody should come out of this blindfolded negotiations and take a stand that signifies leadership!