Home Sweet Home

Its been around 2 weeks since I have been in Cancun and it already seems like home. Waking up to the ocean waves and swimming , running to catch the bus just like I used to during my school days, are just a few things I now consider normal routine now. Its weird when you travel so much, you literally live from your suitcase , and some things carry the memories of home. Some carry photographs. Some teddy bears. But what makes me feel like home is my national attire. The bright colours , Indian prints topped with a great designer bindi on your forehead and a Chunni ( scarf) , the smell of which reminds me of my mother.

Not only does wearing a saree make you feel connected with home but also makes all the Indians in the conference centre miss home too. I have had two of my delegation members personally come and make a conversation and talk about the negotiations.

The atmosphere was intense today , you could here people in the corridors talking about the uncertainty of Kyoto Protocol’s future. Most of the negotiators were just feeling a little lost with their ministers taking the limelight whole some seemed completely optimistic. One of my negotiators mentioned of how the atmosphere was significantly difference from Copenhagen with negotiators being more relaxed but at the same time more focused to get somewhere conclusive by the end of this conference.

Amidst of buzzing news about India’s position and intervention of the Transparency instrument - ICA - International Consultional Analysis and about the over- enthusiastic and persuasive Jai Ram trying to sell this idea to Brazil , South Africa and China, Jai Ram in press briefing was focused on what domestically India was doing with regards to climate change. This is some of what he had to say :

• Consensus on the fact that India is one amongst the most vulnerable countries in the world
• India’s economy depends on the monsoon with over 60% of the area under cultivation being rainfed.
• Since we are a peninsular region , our coast lines are highly vulnerable to sea level rise,
• Five million people are dependent on the mountain ecosystem which also endangers our water security
• Coal fuel energy needs in the rich forest areas , the more we reduce forests more increase in the greenhouse gas emissions.

For all of the above reasons India is amongst the most vulnerable and hence requires to have a proactive domestic response to climate change.

So back home what all intiatives are we taking?

1. National Action Plan on Climate Change

This focuses on mitigation efforts as well as adaptation efforts. India has committed to 20,000 MegaWatt of solar power generation by 2022. They would aim to scale up the renewable energy from 8% to 16% and of nuclear power from 4% to 8%

2. Unilaterally announced under the Copenhagen Accord where India has taken energy intensity 20 - 25 % to the GDP by 2020 on 2005 levels.

3. Low carbon path strategy has been made the central piece of the 12th five year plan. A low carbon path group has come together under the Planning Commision

4. Large group of climate scientists have been institutionalized under India’s IPCC called the INCCA which Ramesh wishes that will be less controversial than the International IPCC. It has over 250 scientists and 120 research institutions

5. It has released the GHG gas inventory for the year of 2007 even though there was no such international obligation to do so. Its a 4 by 4 assessment on Climate change covering the four sectors of Agriculture, Heath, Water and Forests by the year 2030s making it a shoret and medium term analysis

6. India is also introducing National Program on Black Carbon pioneered by Dr V Ramanathan where some of the best scientists in the world will be invited to Monitor , Measure and Model Black Carbon primarily because the ghastly implications it has on the public health in India. There is no room for this discussion under the UNFCCC, since the convention only talks of the CO2 gases.

7. India also plans to launch its own satellite to monitor the GHG emissions from Afforestion and Deforestation activities going up by 2013

8. Helping our neighbours the South Asian

On the 20th of December India and Bangladesh are signing an agreement to protect the Sundarban ecosystem which is 60% in Bangladesh and 40% in India. India , Nepal and China also plan to have the first ever Trilateral on the Mount Kailash landscape and look forward to work on future programs on Glaciology. India has also given out 1 Million dollars to Coastal Zone of Maldives and 1 million dollars to the forestry centre in Thimpu, Bhutan. Environment is a common concern for the South Asian Countries and economically we have a special responsibility to foster environmental relations.

The best thing about Jai Ram is the amount he loves media attention and being approachable to everyone, more on the emperors new clothes tomorrow…