Framework – 2 ppts, 6 pts1. Climate Change is not democratic2. People who have benefited the most from industrial development do not

want to accept the principle of Polluter Pays3. Equity demands that we follow 2 different carbon paths to the future:

• Carbon-Negative and Carbon-Neutral

4. 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.

5. We need to start carbon mapping our communities.6. 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.

• The people who will suffer the most from Climate Change will be those who have contributed the least to this global problem.

• For the people who will be most impacted, Climate Change is an act of tyranny, unknowing, yet tyrannical no less.

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

Chulikadesigned 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

• 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

• 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-2

• 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-Neutral Villages-3

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.

• 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.

Carbon as the new yardstick for govt support

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.

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