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SUMMARY:Climate Change and India: Between energy\, environment and develop
 ment - Sharachchandra Lele\, Senior Fellow and Convenor of the Centre for 
 Environment and Development at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology &a
 mp\; the Environment (ATREE)
DTSTART:20110322T120000Z
DTEND:20110322T130000Z
UID:TALK30328@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:paul haynes
DESCRIPTION:Climate change is not only the biggest global-scale environmen
 tal challenge faced by humanity\, but also the most difficult and divisive
  issue in North-South politics. This talk will present an overview of how 
 the "Indian" response to this problem has been and is likely to be shaped 
 in the future. While the climate system is a global well-mixed and hence c
 ommon-pool resource\, the contributions to its disruption are greatly lops
 ided and the impacts from this disruption are uneven and uncertain. This m
 akes the problem deeply political\, and Indian environmentalists\, led by 
 Anil Agarwal\, were among the first to point this out in the early 1990s\,
  and to highlight questions of historical and current responsibility\, of 
 rightful sharing of the global atmospheric commons\, and of the risks of l
 aunching trading mechanisms without an agreement on sharing. Since then\, 
 the symptoms of climate change have become more apparent\, the potential i
 mpacts for India appear to be much more devastating\, and at the same time
  India's growth juggernaut has resulted in more than a doubling of aggrega
 te emissions\, and made India (with China) the favorite excuse for inactio
 n by the climate-denying USA and other nations. Given its still low per ca
 pita emissions\, and the persistent problem of poverty on a massive scale\
 , not to mention a plethora of local environmental issues\, how might the 
 Indian government and society respond to climate change mitigation debates
 ? I shall argue that how one perceives India's response depends first and 
 foremost on how one frames the climate change problem--in isolation or as 
 part of a larger question of sustainable and equitable development. Second
 ly\, climate change mitigation can never be a major issue in itself for In
 dia\, but it may give progressive Indian environmentalist another lever wi
 th which to question the environmentally destructive 'growth-only' paradig
 m currently in operation.
LOCATION:Laundress Lane Seminar Room 1
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