India's chief economic advisor calls out rich nations' climate hypocrisy

New Delhi: India's Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has criticised developed countries for their "double standards" on climate action, highlighting the G7's commitment to ending the use of unabated coal power plants only in the first half of the 2030s, despite their high carbon emissions.

In the annual economic survey, Nageswaran said it is morally wrong to ask developing countries to abandon their aspirations for better living standards to allow developed countries to maintain their lifestyles in cleaner environments and cooler climates.

He argued that economic growth would empower developing countries to better address climate change.

Nageswaran said the UN convention on climate change and its Paris Agreement mandate that developed countries provide resources and take the lead in mobilising finance to tackle the global problem.

"However, much of the climate action by developing countries has been done through domestic resources, and the emphasis of the developed countries has mainly been on private finance taking the lead in financing climate action," he said.

Criticising the rich nations' "double standards", he pointed out that the UK postponed its decision to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 to 2035, and Germany diluted its rules for banning fossil fuel boilers before they could be passed.

Nageswaran said developed countries, having relied on fossil fuel-based growth strategies for the past two centuries, are now pushing for ambitious emissions cuts from developing nations.

The economist said rich nations are asking developing countries to adopt policy measures, instruments, and production and energy systems that deviate significantly from the carbon-emitting strategies that fueled their own growth.

"The fact that these novel pathways are untested or untrusted is apparent from the recent deliberations of the G7 countries on ending the use of unabated coal power plants only in the first half of the 2030s, even when their carbon emissions peaked several decades ago.

"Japan and Germany did not agree to this. In contrast, Germany has written into its legislation a final target to shut coal plants by 2038, while Japan has yet to set a date. This is a recipe for intra-and international conflicts," he said.

Over the years, India and other countries from the Global South have faced increased pressure from some developed countries to rapidly "phase down" unabated coal power at international forums, especially the annual UN climate conferences.

In Glasgow in 2022 and Dubai in 2023, India strongly defended the coal interests of the Global South, arguing that developed nations historically responsible for climate change should not hinder the development of the Global South.

India relies on coal for about 70 per cent of its power generation.

Nageswaran also said that the rise of alternative political parties in developed countries is attributed to the public's resistance to climate-related rules that are perceived as unfairly targeting the poor and low-income populations by raising their cost of living.

He argued that the global narrative on climate change, often framed as a climate emergency, shifts focus away from other critical developmental issues and can induce unnecessary panic.

"The world needs a more balanced approach to the issue of climate change. It should also focus on nearer-term policy goals of improving human welfare rather than being excessively preoccupied with one large, longer-term goal of global climate management," he said.

Advocating that India and other developing countries should tackle climate change using their own approaches, the economic survey quoted British climatologist Professor Mike Hulme: "Global temperature is a seriously flawed index for capturing the full range of complex relationships between climate and human welfare and ecological integrity." At the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015, countries agreed to limit global average temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and "preferably" to 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent further worsening of climate impacts such as droughts, extreme rain, floods, sea level rise, cyclones, and heat waves.

Nageswaran said globally all efforts hover on channelling precious resources towards attaining this artificial golden mean, with little clear idea of what happens if it doesn’t.