Pune Mirror: Pune: Saturday, June 30, 2018.
RTI query
reveals MoEFCC broke promise made on international forum 20 months ago, says
its plans will only be put forth in 2020
It has been
20 months since the present government committed to taking steps to reduce
greenhouse gas intensity in the country at an international forum, to arrest
climate change through a nationally determined contribution (NDC). But, the
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in a reply to a
Right to Information (RTI) query, has stated that it doesn’t have a plan of
action in place. While the activist who had filed the RTI expressed shock at
the government turning its back on a crucial commitment, environmentalists
claim that it’s yet another example of how MoEF is actually working to ensure
that the health of the environment is compromised.
In an NDC to
the Conference of Parties of the United Nationals Framework of Convention of
Climate Change (UNFCCC), in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on October
2, 2016, committed to ambitious goals for the country to arrest climate change,
promising to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emission per unit GDP by 33
to 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. It had also promised that at least 40
percent of its energy in 2030 would be generated from non-fossil fuel sources.
On the agenda was also a vow to rapidly increase forest cover, so that an
additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion times of carbon dioxide equivalent
is created by 2030. While the commitment was celebrated internationally, an RTI
by a Punebased activist, Anupam Saraph, has now revealed that everything the
country stated has remained on paper. The ministry confessed that it had not
issued any notifications or orders to any Union ministry, state government or
other entity to make them aware of India’s legally binding commitments to the
international community for arresting climate change , as the plan is to be
implemented in 2020.
The reply
sent to Saraph’s query reads: “The MoEFCC has not issued any notification or
orders directing the state to use existing laws to accomplish NDC commitment.
The Paris agreement is for post-2020 and the NDC targets under the agreement
are for post-2020 period.”
“The targets
set were ambitious and to ensure that they are achieved there has to be a plan
of action. Hence, I had written to the Cabinet secretary and the ministry. But
the answer clearly states that it hasn’t taken any steps,” said Saraph. “They
have no information about existing laws that can be actively implemented to
protect existing carbon removal capacity in the country. In order to achieve
this, the country will have to multiply the carbon removal by 10 to 15 times.
This can only happen if the existing trees are protected and a tenfold higher
density of trees is planned. In reality, every 100 kilometers of national highways
is destroying at least 20,000 mature trees. Shockingly, the MoEFCC has not
tasked any officials with the responsibility to protect the existing carbon
absorption capacity and to monitor the projects that would contribute to its
increase.”
Environmentalists
are not too surprised by this disclosure, claiming that this apathy is in tune
with the ministry’s recent decisions on environment. Noted ecologist, Dr Madhav
Gadgil, said, “There is no point in setting targets, but we have to take steps
to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Industrialists are going abroad to buy
machinery that is being discarded by the developed nations as they increase
pollution levels. A lot of action needs to be taken, which is certainly the
responsibility of the government. However, over the past few years, the
ministry has been taking steps to ensure that the environment gets degraded.”
When he
learnt about this, environmentalist and activist Vishwambhar Chaudhari said,
“It’s not surprising given the way this government has been functioning. The
ministry should have appointed a committee to derive the plan of action. But
that’s a far cry as they have not even set internal targets.” He referred to
the manner in which USA had changed its cropping pattern to achieve the
targets, juxtaposing it with the functioning of the ministry, which he said,
was reduced to an authority issuing permissions to projects without a care for
the environment.
Despite
repeated attempts, authorities at MoEFCC could not be reached for comment.
“A lot of
action needs to be taken, but over the past few years, the ministry has taken
steps to ensure that the environment is further degraded.”
— Madhav
Gadgil, noted ecologist
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