Modi Demonstrates Stewardshipat GreenTalks
Come Modi, and transformation and a forward-looking stance is evident. The pros and cons of HFC reduction were
assessed and reforms in the approach were found to be inevitable
resident Barack Obama, in his
166-word eulogy in Time maga-
zine that named Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi among the
100 most influential people in
the world, termed him“India’s reformer-
in-chief” who had “laid out an ambitious
vision to ...unleash India’s true economic
potential while confronting climate
change”.
Modi tweeted thanks to Obama. But
his government, determined to walk the
talk, went beyond. On the same day it
submitted 11-page formal proposal to
the headquarters of the United Nations
Environment Program in Nairobi to seize
the stewardship in the global negotia-
tions that implicated cross-cutting
themes on climate change and ozone
layer protection. Interestingly it was
mainly because of India that the parleys
were all but stalled for last six years and
haunted the negotiating sessions year
after year.
India’s proposal would be discussed in
the extraordinary meeting of 197 coun-
tries in Bangkok next week. A second
meeting will be held in late July in Paris
and the final Meeting of the Parties will
be in UAE the first week of November –
before the climate change meeting in
Paris.
India’s proposal is based on common
but differentiated responsibility. It pro-
poses developed countries going faster
in the phase down of HFCs and develop-
ing countries going slower. It also re-
quires financial and technology transfer
assistance for developing countries.
It is a dramatic but well-studied and
strategic proposal to phase-down pro-
duction and consumption of hydro fluo-
rocarbons (HFCs). These are greenhouse
gases (GHGs) that have up to 12,000
times more global warming potential
(GWP) than carbon dioxide – the most
talked about GHG. HFCs are part of six
GHGs included in the Kyoto Protocol on
climate change, whose emissions are to
be reduced. HFCs are primarily used as
refrigerants, for example in car air condi-
tioning and refrigerators, and in insulat-
ing foams.
The story of HFCs emerging is as
stunning as it can get. The most success-
ful international environmental agree-
ment so far – the Montreal Protocol -
aimed to protect the Ozone layer by
eliminating ozone-depleting gases like
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). HFCs,
along with other
gases were devel-
oped by the indus-
try to replace
CFCs. HFCs are
ozone friendly -
but not climate
friendly. Eliminat-
ing CFCs and
using HFCs was
like going from the
frying pan to fire. The movement against
HFCs started gathering momentum after
2010, but HFCs continued to be the
fastest growing greenhouse gases in
much of the world, increasing at 10-15
percent per year, particularly in the de-
veloping countries and slower in devel-
oped economies, which were reeling
under financial crisis and when the
major industrial manufacturing was
shifting to emerging economies.
When the Montreal Protocol was cele-
brating its success in 2010, ozone layer
recovery was considered to be at the cost
of global warming. Surprisingly, India re-
fused to even discuss the amendment of
reduction of HFCs, proposed by Mi-
cronesia, the US, Canada and Mexico. At
the global negotiations, India stalled any
discussions on the issue, stating that it
has just phased out
CFCs by employing
HFCs in most of
the applications
and hence, was not
ready for yet an-
other transition so
soon. India argued
that effective, af-
fordable and safe
alternatives to
HFCs did not exist. It also resorted to
legal and procedural conundrums by
wondering if controls on HFCs are the
mandate of the Kyoto Protocol on cli-
mate change and not Montreal Protocol
on ozone layer protection.
India’s political leaders, since 2010,
continued to please international com-
munities, particularly in G-20 meetings
and in summits with Obama, by agreeing
to action on HFCs, but in international
negotiations the country played different
tunes to fudge the debate.
Come Modi, and transformation and
a forward-looking stance is evident. The
pros and cons of HFC reduction were as-
sessed and reforms in the approach were
found to be inevitable. It was realized
that reduction in HFCs would provide
the fastest and the most desirable cli-
mate mitigation in the near-term. It also
will build critical momentum for a suc-
cessful outcome in Paris for the challeng-
ing climate negotiations in December.
Proposing a HFC phase-down under
the well-established institution of the
Montreal Protocol would give obvious
advantage of financial assistance, trans-
fer of the latest technology and incen-
tives for the developing countries as
realized under the CFC phase out. Early
phase-down and selecting better energy-
efficient technology was considered to
be part of Modi’s priority of inclusive de-
velopment.
As per researchers, the HFC phase-
down can provide mitigation equivalent
to 100 giga tons of CO2 by 2050 and
avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of warm-
ing by the end of century. As the atmos-
pheric lifetime of HFCs is only 10-15
years as against 100 years in case of CO2,
the phase-down of HFCs could lead to
early benefits.
In other words, the adverse impact of
climate change could be pushed back by
10-15 years. A simultaneous effort to em-
brace super-efficient appliances in India,
including room air conditioners, can ef-
fectively double the climate mitigation
from phasing down HFCs, as per a report
by Indian researchers at California’s
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Their
analysis showed that moving to super-ef-
ficient room air conditioners could save
for India enough electricity to avoid
building up to 120 medium-sized power
plants in the next 15 years.
P
Rajendra
Shende
Former Director UNEP
3
News India Times
May 1, 2015
have always found it tedious to an-
swer the question: “Which is your
hometown?” Not because I am a
daughter of an army officer or be-
long to a family of travellers, but be-
cause “I was born in Srinagar and was
brought up in Jammu.” I have been using
this statement since the early 1990s to in-
troduce myself, deliberately avoiding the
word “Kashmiri Migrant.”
The feeling of being a migrant or dis-
placed in your own country brings in a
sense of irreparable loss as it evokes
blurred memories of childhood and rein-
forces the turmoil the community of
Kashmiri Pandits faced when mass exo-
dus took place in early 1990s uprooting
over 100,000 Hindu Pandits from their
homes due to an Islamist insurgency that
still festers. So the answer to that very
basic “hometown” question invites mixed
reactions, majorly sympathy.
Sympathy is the last thing Kashmiri
Pandits want, but unfortunately this is
what has always been the offering. It is, I
feel, because many fail to understand the
sense of homelessness that has stayed
with us ever since, and refuses to fade
away even today. And it is this permanent
restlessness that a bleak thought of going
back to our “home” brightens up our soul,
even though temporarily.
But this soul was shattered the day it
was known that the government plans to
build “composite clusters” to rehabilitate
displaced Pandits so that we could relive
those lost years and stop lamenting about
homecoming.We have always longed for
home, but this home, ironically, doesn’t
belong to the world we reside in now.
This world doesn’t break into curfews,
offers employment opportunities, doesn’t
deprive me of cinema halls and it is where
I can fearlessly and proudly wear my Indi-
anness on my sleeve. And this is the place
where the displaced Pandits have
restarted their life and rebuilt the founda-
tions of their cultural composition.
It is their home now and 25 years is a
long time for memories to fade away
silently. These two decades have also
alienated the young Kashmiri generation
from the struggle because they under-
stand the importance of the word “Kash-
mir” only when they apply for “Kashmiri
quota” for higher education. It is only then
this tag comes really handy.
Please don’t judge me for the rude
statement, but when I look around I feel
those who started their life in exile at a
young age, adjusted to the newly-found
environs, and those who were born out-
side theValley never really had the umbili-
cal chord attached to their roots.
Whereas the older generation still ro-
mances nostalgia and laments about the
life and times they had in Kashmir during
their growing up years, especially its pic-
turesque marvels, chilling winters and dif-
ficult treks, the younger generation is in-
troduced to these elements via personal
anecdotes and stories.
It would be apt to say that many of us
have moved on, settled down and alien-
ated ourselves from the idea of Kashmir.
A subtle proof of this statement is that
we are building a generation that can’t
speak the Kashmiri language. In many
houses, parents speak to their children in
Hindi so that they are not laughed at for
the “funny accent” – something this dis-
placed community was initially made fun
of. It has become a language we under-
stand, but barely speak any more.We have
compromised and adjusted to the rules of
the new world.
Uprooting an entire community from
their homes not only displaces its people,
it silently withers away the intangible cul-
ture and shared history. Culture, indeed,
has become the biggest causality of our
never-ending exile.
AHomeWeLeft Behind25YearsAgo
I
By Shilpa Raina
Opinion
