Tough talk from India`s ex-environment minister
`Human action caused this and human action will be required to resolve it,` Suresh Prabhu told the editorial board of the Ottawa Citizen. `No one can come back home and say they`ve failed. At the end of the day it`s very, very simple, but the politics is not making it look that way.`
Prabhu spent three days in Toronto and Ottawa speaking to the media about India`s commitment to tackling climate change and Canada`s responsibility to help. He traveled as a guest of the Climate Action Network and Oxfam Canada and appeared on TVO`s the Agenda with Steve Paiken and spoke with the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, CBC radio, the Ottawa Citizen, Embassy magazine and several Indo-Canadian radio stations and publications.
As a developing country, India is not obliged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. But as one of the world`s most populous countries, and with one of the world`s fastest-growing economies, India will be a major player in the negotiations for a climate change deal at Copenhagen.
`The polluters must pay,` Prabhu said, noting that, so far, Canada`s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been very disappointing. `Canada could have done a much better job,` he said. It`s a large, resource-rich country with a sparse population and a huge technological base. Changing the energy mix should have been relatively easy. `If Canada can get away with it, others will think, ˜why can`t we?``
The Copenhagen deal must include solid commitments to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as specific target dates to achieve Copenhagen`s goals, Prabhu said. Most importantly, there must be funding for technology that will allow developing countries to adapt to climate change, as well as funding to help mitigate its effects.
Oxfam Canada believes that money cannot come from aid budgets. Prabhu spoke about the link between development and environmental degradation, saying women and children who are healthy, educated and empowered act responsibly when it comes to washing clothing, gathering water or collecting firewood. He too believes the aid budget cannot be raided in order to pay for climate change.
India is already taking to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, Prabhu said, not just waiting for developing countries to provide the funding and technology. While environment minister, he introduced a `perform and trade` greenhouse gas emissions program that rewards clean businesses while punishing polluters. There is also a massive solar energy campaign underway, since 45 per cent of the country remains off the power grid, and a growing movement to reforest parts of the south Asian country.
`India is already doing far more than we can afford to do,` he said. `The ill-effects are already hitting us so hard.` India`s monsoon rains were about 20 per cent their usual strength this year, leaving the country in a drought. Glacial retreat in the Himalayas has also made water a scarce resource.
`Canadians see climate change as a threat on the horizon,` Oxfam Canada executive director Robert Fox said. `But climate change has already existed for a generation in Africa. We measure it in the kilometers a woman has to walk to find water, in the hours a girl is pulled from school to help perform these tasks, in the number of assets washed away by violent weather. In Canada, we think of polar bears as the poster child for rising global temperatures, but it is really the African woman who most symbolizes the impact of climate change.`
`Canada must join hands with the rest of the world,` Prabhu said. `Not getting a deal is not possible because it would be a disaster for everyone.`
