news from the cpi(m)
Central Committee Resolution
On Climate Change
(Adopted at the Central Committee meeting held on October 23-25, 2009)
1. The problem of climate change has reached crisis proportions. The
scientific consensus as represented in the reports of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that the
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rapidly
approaching levels beyond which irreversible and potentially
catastrophic global warming and other changes in climate could occur.
While these changes will affect all of humanity, it is clear that the
worst effects would be felt by the poor especially in the developing
world. India is likely to be among the worst affected regions, with
erratic and unseasonal rainfall, melting of Himalayan glaciers, floods
and droughts, changes in crop behaviour including sharp drop in
production of cereals, and rising sea-levels inundating coastal areas
including major cities.
2. The forthcoming global Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009 is
expected to finalize international Treaty arrangements under the
auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to
reduce global emissions and restrict atmospheric greenhouse gas
concentrations. Despite mounting evidence of the grave threats posed by
climate change, the US and other industrialized countries appear hell
bent on sabotaging these efforts. They are undermining the UNFCCC
framework of "common but differentiated responsibility" of developed and
developing countries wherein the former are required to undertake
binding emission cuts while the latter would be assisted through funds
and technology transfer to adapt to climate change and adopt low-carbon
development strategies.The advanced countries led by the US in fact seek
to shift the burden of the crisis on to the developing countries,
especially India, China and other so-called "emerging economies".
3. Climate change and the unfolding dynamics of the global climate
negotiations are clear manifestations of the predatory character of
capitalism. Climate change has been caused by the illicit appropriation
and occupation of the global atmospheric commons by the industrialized
countries. The US and its allies are now pushing hard to structurally
build these inequities into the global Climate Treaty arrangements. The
refusal of the advanced capitalist countries to provide funds as
compensation for the environmental damage caused and the imposition of
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) restrictions on transfer of
technologies are part of the overall attempt to perpetuate the
inequalities in the global order.
4. The Kyoto Protocol, in trying to redress these inequities, had set
binding emission reduction targets for the developed countries while
exempting developing countries from such obligations, instead calling
upon them to take appropriate measures commensurate with their national
capabilities. Developed countries have blatantly violated their Treaty
obligations to reduce emissions by 5 percent compared to 1990 baseline
levels by now. On the contrary, their cumulative emissions went up by 10
percent, while that of the US which refused to join the Treaty went up
by a massive 17 percent. With the dangerously advancing crisis, IPCC has
now called upon developed countries to commit to deep emission cuts of
40 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050. Far from doing so, the
developed countries are continually diluting even their earlier
commitments, the EU offering a mere 20 percent and the US just 3 percent
with respect to 1990 levels. Most damagingly, in the run-up to
Copenhagen, the US and its key allies are seeking to altogether abandon
the UNFCCC framework and Kyoto principles of differential
responsibilities for developed and developing countries, instead putting
them in the same bracket.
5. The official Indian position vis-à-vis the international
negotiations, as well as its actions within the country, have been
seriously wanting. Far from seriously countering these US-led efforts,
the Indian government while formally maintaining that it is sticking to
the Kyoto principles, has been giving overt and covert support to the US
position in a number of ways. There are clear signs that India is
tacitly going along with US efforts to dilute the Copenhagen outcome by
emphasizing general goals, some unequal technology collaborations and
postponing if not abandoning the requisite stiff emission reduction
targets for developed countries. Regardless of the recent differences
within sections of the government on negotiating positions, with the
Minister of Environment and Forests Advocating a more blatantly pro-US
position, the overall trend is towards India collaborating with the US
as part of an overall Indo-US strategic partnership. These moves must be
resisted by all progressive sections in the interests of humanity,
especially the poor, and as part of the struggle against capitalist
globalization.
6. India has adopted a National Action Plan on Climate Change and has
recently announced a series of measures to conserve energy and reduce
emissions. Unilateral Indian actions alone to reduce emissions will not
reduce the impact on India, because climate change is a global
phenomenon not just a national one. On the other hand, India can and
should adopt an action plan to reduce emission growth rates, not
unilaterally but based on reciprocal actions i.e. conditional upon the
US and other developed countries adopting the deep emission cut goals
recommended by the IPCC. This would not only be an appropriate response
to the serious crisis humanity is facing but could also alter the
dynamics of the climate negotiations. Such an action plan would also
enable greater accountability towards a more responsible and socially
equitable developmental trajectory within India.
7. More than half of Indian households, mostly the poor in rural areas,
have no access to modern energy. Energy inequality in India is a major
factor in poor human development of the majority of the Indian people.
Policies of the government, especially one that claims to work for the
aam aadmi, should be reoriented specifically to deliver more energy to
these sections and should form an integral component of all poverty
alleviation endeavours. This will inevitably result in increase of
emissions that must be compensated by energy conservation measures
related to better-off sections of society and sectors of the economy.
Corporate India must also adhere to a trajectory that does not damage
the environment, people's health and social justice. Environmentally
sustainable and socially equitable development are inextricably
intertwined. The CPI(M) demands adoption of a clear and targeted set of
policies harmonizing domestic and international concerns aimed at
promoting both climate justice and social equity.
In light of the above, the CPI(M) demands of the Government that:
* India firmly resists pressure from the US and other advanced countries
to abandon the Kyoto and UNFCCC framework and sticks to the principles
of common but differentiated responsibilities for developed and
developing countries
* India should continue to press for fund and technology transfers from
developed to developing countries as compensation for damage caused by
historical emissions, and freeing of technology transfers from IPR
restrictions
* India take up and announce measures for control and reduction of
growth rates of emissions not unilaterally but only conditional upon the
US and other Annex-1 advanced countries undertaking the deep emission
cuts as called for by the IPCC
* India work closely with the G5 group of large developing countries and
with the G77, especially the Least Developed Countries and the Small
Island Developing States, and maintain the unity of the developing
countries
* India move pro-actively on adaptation measures and to reduce energy
inequality within the country so that India's climate policies serve to
advance the interests of India's poor and protect them from the worst
effects of climate change.
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