Resources & Sustainable Development

The world has just over a decade to prevent the climate from unravelling in catastrophic ways. While the primary onus for avoiding this looming calamity lies with the rich industrialised nations, India, which is now the world’s third biggest emitter, is committed to the Paris Agreement. However, whether it can muster the political will and the financial muscle to shift to a low-carbon economy while raising the living standard of its billion plus citizens is a trillion dollar question the answer to which will become clear only after 2030 when it begins to decouple its economic growth from its emissions.

Even as dirty air continues to mar and prematurely snuff out millions of lives in the country, the unsettling truth is that no one, neither political parties nor the voting masses, considers it grave enough to be aired loudly in the ongoing general elections. Oddly, however, it does find first-ever mention in the manifestos of the two principal political parties. But whether this would actually lead to cleaner air is anybody’s guess.

As the world’s biggest democracy goes into electoral frenzy, yet another hot and dry summer spell threatens to plunge the country into its worst water emergency. For long blithely callous to people’s water woes, any future government would choose to ignore the warning signs only at the risk of political suicide.

Sustainable infrastructure is now an established buzzword in international policy making circles -  involving governments, private corporations and think tanks. There is almost no room in this discourse for asking fundamental questions about how growth is defined and whether the nature of growth should itself be redirected. How would the future of infrastructure look if we approach it from the perspective of 'sustainability' as degrowth – which means redirecting the economy and society towards actual well-being of all, Sarvodaya, rather than perpetual economic growth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).

REDD+ was praised as a tool that could quickly and cheaply reduce emissions. This prediction has not been fulfilled. Instead, global emissions and deforestation are increasing.

The Katowice climate package brings minor progress, but COP 24 failed to deliver on the most fundamental issues such as raising ambition of national contributions, implementing human rights, and ensuring support for developing countries.

The reclamation of seed as a common good has begun. Following the concept of open source, new approaches evolve that result in the cultivation of a large number of species and varieties.

Amitav Ghosh’s new book “The Great Derangement” examines climate change and climate policy from unusual perspectives. It is bound to get much international attention because it asks some fundamental new questions concerning the handling of climate change in literature and activist politics, and because it represents a well-known voice from Asia.

Globally, political leaders are lauding the acceptance of the global and legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP21 as a historical moment. It achieves a goal long believed unattainable. However, judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground demanding a global deal anchored in climate justice, the Paris Agreement can only be called a disappointment.

A quick overview of the world’s state of affairs with regard to energy shows that the global energy transition is now picking up speed, as Ralf Fücks points out.