Global carbon emissions: approaches of India and China.

AuthorRanganathan, V.
  1. INTRODUCTION

    With the world going green, or rather, with the various nations' governments posturing to look green, in an effort to go with the Joneses, the blame game has begun, with fingers being pointed at India and China for taking the lead in environmental destruction, particularly--carbon emission, dust release, relying on conventional energy sources and rampant mining activities. The picture presents a rather grim scenario for the Asian powerhouses in terms of international grants, global pressure and market trends. Recently, World Bank funding for super-critical energy efficient power plants, under green initiative, was stopped by US Green lobbyists on the ground coal based electricity cannot be funded under green initiative, whatever improvements one may do to paint it green! Upset by this development, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, stopped consultations by World Bank with the Indian public on ways to chart a low carbon path. US, China and India have large coal resources and would like to use it. But whereas India is rather blunt about its imperative to use coal for development, and argues its case by pointing out that it is in fact Western nations which are primarily responsible for the major share of the carbon emissions into the atmosphere, China and US use coal resources, but both posture a greener-than-thou attitude and cultivate a favourable public opinion. On top of this China is basking in the sun shine of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) funds, use those funds to subsidize green manufacturing and outsell US firms in US on green technology, thereby having a makeup of a green proponent. While US under Bush was blunt on its dim view of Kyoto, under Obama it has taken a nuanced stance that it will play the green game if China and India first do, with clear external verification.

  2. RESEARCH

    On the surface:

    According to media reports, China is the current leader in green technology. It invested $34 billion on green technology research in 2010, twice that of USA. The nation is the leading producer of solar cells and solar panels, with a market share of close to 50%, and has installed about one-third of wind turbines globally, with an installed capacity of over 16GW. It is the largest producer of hydroelectricity, with an installed capacity of 125GW in 2010. Its nuclear energy capacity stands at 10.5GW, and is planned to be increased to 60-70GW by 2020. In spite of releasing the largest carbon emission among all nations, surpassing USA last year, it can be justified since over a third of this footprint is due to Chinese exports to Western countries. In other words, China has been bearing the burden of carbon footprints for western countries, by indirect import of pollution. All these point to the fact that China has emerged as the world leader for development of green energy.

    Benefits and Opportunities seized:

    Under the aegis of pioneering work in promoting green technology, China has emerged as the largest beneficiary of CDM in the world, whose major objective is to buy off carbon credits for developed country plants through carbon emission reduction projects in developing countries, since the latter is far cheaper than the former (See fig. 1 below). The emission cuts, which are measured in terms of CER (Certified Emission Reductions), are then sold in the market which developed country firms can buy to account for their emissions.

    Using the CDM, which was part of Kyoto Protocol, China has ramped up CDM projects at a steep rate. In 2009, out of the 41.5GW power developed from CDMs, China accounted for 66% of the credits. Currently, the CDM fund is pegged at $2.4 Billion per annum, in which China has the major...

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