India’s announcement on voluntary reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has accelerated otherwise snail-paced negotiation on a deal to be reached in Copenhagen this December. It is a welcome step but a tactical move. From the solitude of obstructing, as many argue, to all-inclusive Copenhagen, India has sent a signal of relief to the climate negotiators, mostly representatives of developed countries. If the world sees this Indian move as a surprise, they are wrong.
Indians are, by nature, emotive. Unfortunately, they believe in overreacting. So, be it 26/11, Swine flu, or a draught-like situation: mostly, they react excessively. They cannot even take a loss by a cricket team sportingly, so naturally, they are bound to start the blame game when drought is at the doorstep. What better punching bag could be than the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)? Few intellectuals are even asking for its closure.
For the Indian climate crusaders, 2007 has become more important for three reasons. First, the entry of climate change as an agenda item to the United Nations Security Council on April 18. Now, the Nobel Peace Prize to the scientific community - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former US Vice-President Al Gore for making people aware of climate change. It’s argued that the issue would become everybody’s business to know, manage and resolve after the prestigious award.
All over the world, environmentalists and green activists are jubilant. Even the renowned international environmental organization Greenpeace is thrilled for its nomenclature when climate change has officially ‘securitized’ in the United Nations. But, traditional war theorists or security experts have kept an eerie silence over the historical development of the re-emergence of the ‘environmental security’ concept. Beyond its tradition, on April 17, the UN Security Council (UNSC) debated the impacts of climate change and its linkages to international security for the first time in history.
The world’s biggest economies are set to prepare for massive investments in nuclear energy. The most elusive energy, which was discarded in the 1992 Earth Summit as ‘not safe and sound’ energy, has been touted as the best alternative for the energy-crunch world in the recently concluded Group of Eight (G- 8) Summit meeting at St. Petersburg, Russia. After shock waves of the Three Miles and Chernobyl accidents, the nuclear energy is back to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, the root cause of climate change.