India reveals its first climate change plan

In the wake of next week's G8 meeting in Japan, India released its first action plan for climate change (PDF) earlier this week.

The plan outlines eight national "missions" for sustainable development, including:

• solar energy;
• energy efficiency;
• creating a sustainable habitat;
• conserving water;
• preserving the Himalayan ecosystem;
• creating a green India;
• creating sustainable agriculture;
• and establishing a platform of "strategic knowledge for climate change."

The plan lacks a budget and plan of action at this point, but a Council on Climate Change, with stakeholders from the government, industry, and civil society, has been formed to come up with directives and funding.

Among the eight missions, the strongest focus seems to be on solar power.

"We will pool all our scientific, technical, and managerial talents, with financial sources to develop solar energy as a source of abundant energy to power our economy and to transform the lives of our people," India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who chairs the council, said during the announcement of the plan.

"Our success in this endeavor will change the face of India," he continued.

A goal is to increase photovoltaic production to 1 gigawatt per year (today the total installed world capacity is roughly 20 GW and almost doubling each year) as well as establish 1 GW of concentrating solar power, or CST, generation capacity by 2017. CST technologies include trough systems, dish/engine systems, and power towers that heat up water or molten salt that can then be used to run a generator to produce electricity.

And indeed, investments are piling up in the solar-tech industry in the country. In Fab City, a proposed semiconductor manufacturing hub outside of Hyderabad, solar cell companies are slowly taking over the grounds.

The IT ministry decided in 2006 to develop a 1,200-acre site near the upcoming Hyderabad international airport (inaugurated in March this year) and turn it into a chip manufacturing center. Interested corporations can apply for land allotments, and so far more than half of the land has been taken.

In February, the last four companies receiving approval to set up shop were all in the photovoltaic business.

NanoTech Silicon India is investing $2 billion in a plant for thin-film solar cells, after scrapping its initial plan for a chip factory in the same spot.

The domestic Titan Energy Systems, already a Hyderabad manufacturer, plans to build a $759 million photovoltaic cell and wafer production facility in phases over the next three years.

XL Telecom & Energy is setting up a $75 million solar module factory, and KSK Energy Ventures will built a $70 million unit for making photovoltaic panels.

Earlier, solar cell and panel manufacturer Solar Semiconductor announced it would be investing $1.1 billion to expand its manufacturing capacity in Fab City over a 10-year period.

Apart from shiny solar power prospects, India's action plan lacks commitment to cut carbon emissions, just like China's did last year.

India contributes 5 percent of the world's carbon emissions, and China contributes 17 percent, according to a World Bank report.

But per capita, Indians emit far less carbon dioxide than Americans or Europeans.

The action plan highlights carbon dioxide emissions, which is cited to be 1 metric ton per person in India, compared to 20 metric tons in the U.S. The world average is 4.25 metric tons.

"Every citizen of this planet must have an equal share of the planetary atmospheric space," Singh said in his speech. He, just like others, pushes for per capita emission rules. That would be a nightmare for the hard-consuming, industrialized world.

[William Crow]

What climate change?

[Deep_Indian]

This is an excellent first step towards the larger realizations in this sector. I commend the Prime Minister and his team for putting together a comprehensive view-point on the efforts needed across multiple sectors.
For the first time I noticed a "country view" on a topic. By bringing together all the eco-system players, the government is putting across the right mandate to make India "green".

[Solar_Silicon_Projects]

We are setting up a polysilicon plant, silicon ingot and wafer plant. Details can be seen in our site www.polysilicon.in

email: [e-mail]

[Solar_Silicon_Projects]

We are setting up a polysilicon plant, silicon ingot and wafer plant. Details can be seen in our site polysilicon(dot)in

email: [e-mail]

[flickrz]

"I can't believe these many countries really think that Global Warming is a real phenomenon. Burning fossil fuel is the best thing that happened to our economy in last 2 centuries. GW is just a myth created b companies to sell Green products." - Sean Hannity and Bush Administration.
He also said "Iraq was responsible for 9/11 and they have WMDs. And they have Chemical weapons that could be launched on the western world in just 45 minutes."
He was wrong all along. Every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie. But hey, who cares? He wears flag lapel pin. So, he must be patriotic.
Forget all these nonsense; we too need such a plan as soon as possible. Because, we were the largest polluters for 100 years until last year when China took the crown.

[blabtech]

India is growing at such a rapid rate, hats off to India by all the major improvements it's been making!

http://blabtech.blogspot.com

[TarasW]

The Indians, like the Chinese, must be laughing at us. Here's an actual quote (unlike flickrz's concocted ones, above) from the Pew Climate Center's account of the Indian plan:

"Emphasizing the overriding priority of maintaining high economic growth rates to raise living standards, the plan ... pledges that India?s per capita greenhouse gas emissions 'will at no point exceed that of developed countries even as we pursue our development objectives.'" -- http://www.pewclimate.org/international/country-policies/india-climate-plan-summary/06-2008

Note well, that's "per capita": India is graciously limiting itself to 377% (and rising) of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions!

All we're doing is shifting greenhouse emissions (and economic growth) from one country to another.

Here's a provocative column about the Indians' real attitude about global warming. The parts of it I checked out proved true.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23991257-25717,00.html