{"id":20023341,"date":"2017-11-13T12:31:38","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T07:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=23341"},"modified":"2021-08-13T19:58:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:28:22","slug":"global-failures-evident-in-delhi-smog","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/global-failures-evident-in-delhi-smog\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi smog reveals global failure to deal with climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the beginning of COP23, the issue of loss and damage has cast a shadow over proceedings as developing countries argue for pre-2020 actions to be included. At present, a much more visible gloom hangs over Delhi \u2013 air pollution.<\/p>\n

Visibility has plummeted, a health emergency has been declared, and schools have been shut down. Various regional governments are quarrelling with each other, and with central government agencies. But the\u00a0solutions seem elusive.<\/p>\n

The Indian environment minister, Harsh Vardhan, advised residents not to panic, saying that a Graded Response Action Plan<\/a> was in place. But given that this plan has allegedly been in place for\u00a012 months\u00a0and Delhi\u2019s air is as polluted as last year, it seems to have delivered little.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Huge crop burning fires across Indian states surrounding Delhi, as seen from NASA’s Goddard satellite on October 20.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problem of Delhi\u2019s air pollution has an obvious \u2014 but expensive \u2014 fix. Up to\u00a090% of the pollution<\/a>\u00a0in northern India is caused by\u00a0farmers burning stubble to clear fields in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. The Indian government had a plan to deal with the issue, but it fell apart as the states concerned couldn’t agree on a way<\/a> to distribute\u00a0the INR 30 billion (USD 460 million) in costs.<\/p>\n

See: Delhi smog caused by stubble burning in India\u2019s bread basket<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The government is already spending a huge amount to deal with the costs of climate change adaptation. According to a study carried out by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad<\/a>, the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar<\/a>\u00a0and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water<\/a>, India spent USD 91.8 billion in the 2013-14 financial year. These costs are projected to increase to USD 360 billion to 2030.<\/p>\n

Direct damage<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2016, NGO Germanwatch<\/a> estimated that India suffered direct infrastructural damage of about\u00a0USD 21 billion due to extreme weather events, equivalent to almost 1% of India\u2019s total GDP \u2013 and about the same it spends on the entire\u00a0health budget.<\/p>\n

See: Climate risk perilously high in India<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Delhi smog, therefore, shows how badly developing countries have been affected by climate change impacts, largely caused by the historical carbon emissions of developed countries. The huge losses and expenses a country such as India faces in dealing with these issues limits its ability to allocate funds to easy but expensive solutions which, in turn, lead to massive carbon emissions. The effects of Indian crop burning will, inevitably, add to the load of carbon already in the atmosphere,\u00a0compounding the problems of climate change faced by the world at large.<\/p>\n

More problematically, countries left to fend\u00a0for themselves to deal with these issues will have to boost their GDP. At a pre-COP23 briefing for Indian journalists, Thomas Hagbeck, the counsellor for economics, environment and urban development at the German Embassy in India, spoke of German\u2019s Energiewende<\/a>\u00a0(energy transition) away from fossil fuels. He emphasised that the transition was not cost-free and required significant investment.<\/p>\n

Germany has a per capita GDP of nearly USD 42,000. By comparison, India\u2019s is USD 1,850. As a result, developing countries such as India, which\u00a0is also the fourth largest carbon emitter\u00a0after China, the US and the European Union, is likely to adopt the easiest and cheapest technologies to boost its GDP, pushed in part by the costs needed to deal with climate adaptation. It is little wonder then, that coal-based power plants<\/a> remain one of the key drivers of energy growth in Asia.<\/p>\n

Bills coming due<\/strong><\/p>\n

Environmental pollution is famously one of the key externalities left out of economic calculations, as the costs are diffused and long-term \u2013 but the bills are now due. This generation is the first in nearly 1,000\u00a0years to see a lowered life expectancy compared to the one previous. Our children are paying the costs. One key reason is air pollution, a fact already seen in the US<\/a> and in China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As developing countries make poor choices \u2014 partially due to the poor choices made by developed countries in the past \u2014 this problem is\u00a0likely to increase. The Delhi smog cannot be disentangled from a larger global problem, which will not go away without a global solution. The fact that developed countries refuse to have that discussion hurts us all in the long run.<\/p>\n

We want to hear from you! Tell us what you think about The Third Pole and you could win $100. Take our\u00a0survey<\/span>\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The smog blanketing Delhi shows how badly developing countries have been impacted by climate change, largely caused by the historical carbon emissions of rich nations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20023342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[761,757,760],"tags":[],"country":[20000111],"class_list":["post-20023341","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-energy","category-pollution","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDelhi smog reveals global failure to deal with climate change<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The smog blanketing Delhi shows how badly developing countries have been impacted by climate change, largely caused by the historical carbon emissions of rich nations\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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