Transcript urban & rural: by T Pradeep | Director

Framework – 2 ppts, 6 pts
1.
2.
3.
Climate Change is not democratic
People who have benefited the most from industrial development do
not want to accept the principle of Polluter Pays
Equity demands that we follow 2 different carbon paths to the future:
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4.
5.
6.
Carbon-Negative and Carbon-Neutral
We need to engage people who will be the most impacted by Climate
Change in actions that will allow them them to internalise, understand
and contribute to the Climate Change debate.
We need to start carbon mapping our communities.
We need to organise the marginalised around specific interventions
that address immediate concerns as well as Climate Change.
Democratising the Science and Technology of Climate Change
The question we need to ask is
“How democratic is Climate Change itself?”
• Climate Change is the cumulative impact of a 100
years of carbon emissions from fossil fuel-based
industrial development that that has enriched
many of our lives.
most
• The people who will suffer the
from
Climate Change will be those who have
contributed the to this global problem.
• For the people who will be most impacted,
Climate Change is an act of tyranny, unknowing,
yet tyrannical no less.
least
Kyoto Protocol:
It’s based on principles of historical
responsibilities and equity.
• Climate Change is rooted in our colonial past, the Industrial
revolution it fostered, and in the attitudes to our natural
resources that continue to define our exploitation of our
world.
• All of us who have benefited from our colonial past, and
from the benefits of a capitalist economy owe our children,
and the people who will be the most impacted, a historical
responsibility to correct the mistakes of the past.
• The tragedy, as the world dithers about who should pay
and how much, is that the inevitable tyranny of Climate
Change is becoming less and less an act of ignorance.
Copenhagen Accord:
The slippery slope to
national or notional targets
The honest truth: all Indians will not suffer equally.
– what the US and Europe are to India,
– our cities are to our villages, and
–within our cities, our apartment blocks, gated communities and
colonies are to our slums.
Our per capita carbon emission is very low:
– that’s because there’s over a billion of us.
–some of our urban families have a carbon footprint comparable to
households in the US and Europe.
The danger of Copenhagen is that it can align global
forces on a class basis: it provides every group that
has contributed to and benefited from a carbon
economy the opportunity to evade/dilute their
responsibilities.
The contradiction of lowering carbon levels
while increasing our Gross Quality of Life:
- it’s not possible.
On a more positive note, a world split on Class lines provides an
opportunity to explore Climate Change more equitably:
• Hi-Carbon households commit to become Carbon-Negative.
– ie that they commit themselves to reducing their carbon footprint to at
least 80 percent on 1990 emission levels by 2050;
– through the use of clean technologies and practices, and
– through life style changes
• Low-Carbon households commit to stay Carbon-Neutral.
– ie these households use as much energy as required for their
development, but commit themselves to neutralise this
– through sequestration/reduction of carbon emissions, and
– through the use of clean technologies and practices.
Climate Change
- Introducing equity and
sustainability into a changing
development paradigm
Climate Change
- it will affect some of us more than than others
• Communities in low-lying coastal areas and river estuaries
• Rain-dependent agricultural communities
– and that’s all of our agriculture since well, tank and
river irrigation are dependent on rain for recharge,
filling and lift
• Himalayan communities dependent on glaciers for their
water supply
• Urban populations dependent on rainwater – rivers,
tanks, bore wells - for their drinking requirements
Indirectly, of course, it will affect all of us
– as our food, water and health are affected
TERI Energy Audit
– ISPWD-K, Kanakanala Watershed, SAMUHA
• Energy audit of Juelkunti village
• 121 households, 901 population
• Community Carbon footprint of 839 tons
– a per capita footprint of 0.93 tons
• 88% of this is from fuel wood from domestic
cooking
Chulika
- the potential to convert losers into winners
• 60% of Indians use firewood and crop residues for
cooking
• That’s over 720 million Indians
• Or at an average of 5 persons, about 144,000,000/million
or 14,40,00,000/Crore households
• The Chulika cookstove has been designed for these
households by iSquareD, a charitable trust
promoted by SAMUHA
Chulika
designed to impact on
- Climate Change,
- Deforestation and
- Indoor Air Pollution
• Each Chulika
– saves 1.32-1.58 ton of carbon emissions annually
– uses 40% less firewood
• 30.8% efficiency (certified by Central Power Research Institute)
– significantly reduces the indoor air pollution that is integral to
the traditional chula
• Each Chulika provides Value For Money
– cost recovery from firewood savings/wage equivalent and reduced
medical expenditure
• It has an MRP of Rs 1200.
• As a SAMUHA Climate Change initiative, it is being sold at Rs 850.
The contradiction of
Energy and Development
• Cycling
– in Holland it’s an alternative lifestyle
– In India, it’s low-cost transportation
• While both are low carbon, in one, its choice; in the other,
it’s compulsion
• Global warming is the cumulative impact of the past 100 years of
carbon-emissions by industrialised countries that allows some
people the choice of making a choice.
• Till India moves to a clean technology-based development model,
low carbon will leave Indians with a Quality of Life below that of
developed countries.
Carbon-Neutral
• Carbon-Neutral provides an alternative approach: use whatever
energy model is available but take steps to ensure that your
carbon emissions are neutralised
– through sequestration/reduction of carbon emissions,
– through the use of clean technologies and practices, and
– through life style changes
• For India, the Carbon-Neutral Village/Slum provides a clear way to
a safer future.
- Carbon mapping
Energy & Development
- helping people to understand their carbon footprints
NRM Inventory
Carbon-Neutral Villages-1
• Community Economic Institution
– Mutually aided cooperative society
– Producers company
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•
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Inputs supply – local production
Agriculture credit
Crop insurance
Weather watch
• Trench-cum-Bunds – drought proofing
– Soil conservation
– Rainwater harvesting and conversion into sub-surface
interflows
– Space for composting and bund plantations
Carbon-Neutral Villages-2
• Composting – 3-5 tons per ac – soil carbon
– Crop residues
– Leaf litter
• Community irrigation
– Drip irrigation – adaptation
• Agro-forestry – sequestration
– Horticulture – bio-insurance
– Fodder plants – adaptation
• 117 plants per plough bullock pair
– Composting plants – adaptation
• 25 plants per ac
• NPM cropping – reduced use of synthetic pesticides - mitigation
• Sweet sorghum – sweet syrup as pre-ethanol input - mitigation
Carbon-Neutral Villages-3
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Farmgate procurement - mitigation
Semi-processing
Packaging, retailing
Energy-efficient biomass cookstoves – 1.32 t/ce per
stove
LED street/house lights - 0.1 t/ce per light
Community solar water heaters - ?
Biogas – 3 t/ce per unit
Household/Community toilets – methane capture - ?
….
Carbon as the new yardstick for survival
• Climate Change adaptation and mitigation
interventions are no different from those undertaken
under sustainable agriculture or watershed
development.
• The difference is that the efficacy of each intervention
is gauged by how many tons of carbon it can reduce,
sequester or replace.
• The Carbon-Neutral Village provides a geographical
framework and platform for Climate Change
interventions to be focused on, aggregated and
quantified in an accountable manner.
Carbon as the new yardstick for govt support
• CERC - Carbon Emission Reduction Certificate
– This is the new currency.
• Each CERC = 1 ton of carbon reduction.
– Presently CDM-based CERCs sell for around €10 or
Rs 690.
– Since every ton of reduction lends itself to
meeting national carbon goals, Carbon emission
reduction also lends itself as a measurable unit
which can serve as the basis for
additional/incentivised govt funding for villages.
Is a Carbon-Neutral Slum possible?
• Rag picker operations need to be quantified, and
their recycling potential measured in carbon
tons/equivalent
• Decentralised water and sanitation systems need to
be introduced into slums
• Rainwater harvesting systems need to be set up in
slums
• ….
The Carbon-Neutral Slum can also provide a
geographical framework and platform for Climate
Change interventions to be focused on, aggregated
and quantified in an accountable manner.