New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) With nearly a month to go for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), the global stage is set for negotiations that often look like standard diplomatic friction between nations, but fundamentally dictate how heavily the common man on the ground is impacted.
When a farmer faces drought and crop failure, an economically vulnerable citizen’s home is washed away in floods, a coastal resident struggles for fresh drinking water due to saltwater intrusion, or an urban outdoor labourer suffers acute heatstroke and lost wages during extreme heatwaves, they face the fallout of what they can only identify as increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.
This reality prompts climate experts to emphasise the concept of ‘climate justice,’ relentlessly questioning why those who contributed the least to global warming must suffer the most, an imbalance they attribute to ‘carbon debt’ or historical emissions.
Even though this debate resurfaces at every UN Climate Change Conference, it is now underscored by the recent BRICS New Delhi declaration, where developing nations reasserted that fossil fuels must remain part of their energy mix, while also recognising the need to promote “just, orderly, equitable and inclusive energy transitions.”
Speaking to PTI Videos, Pallavi Das, a programme lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), explained, “Before carbon-intensive lifestyles, societies were largely agrarian, with minimal fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions. With the Industrial Revolution, people began using coal, oil, and gas extensively in factories, power plants, and other industries.”
“This led the developed world to emit far more carbon historically, relative to their population at the time, and they accumulated a large historical share of global emissions,” she added.
To quantify the gap, Das – a programme lead at the Low-Carbon Economy team at CEEW – pointed out that from 1890 to 2019, the United States emitted about 400 gigatons of carbon dioxide, the European Union around 348 gigatons, and China 220 gigatons, while India emitted only 53 gigatons. By 2019, India’s total historical carbon dioxide emissions were only around 11 per cent of what the US had generated.
Further simplifying the concept of ‘carbon debt,’ Sanjay Vashist, Director at Climate Action Network in South Asia (CANSA) said that the developed countries used more than their fair share of atmospheric space by burning fossil fuels beyond their survival limits, at the expense of developing countries.
“Since the Industrial Revolution, developed nations burned coal and other fossil fuels and accumulated enormous wealth. Now that it has become a problem, they are asking developing countries, especially major emerging economies like the BRICS nations, to cut back on emissions and growth,” Vashist told PTI.
According to CK Mishra, former Secretary at the Environment Ministry, only developing countries are sticking to the Paris Agreement, whereas developed nations have found a “convenient way out of the process.”
“The agreement was based on developed countries contributing financially and technology-wise to help developing countries get out of this situation. That hasn’t happened, and doesn’t seem to be happening soon. I feel that the Paris Agreement is becoming a one-sided agreement, where the developing nations are carrying the entire burden. Since they do not have the resources, the results become a little doubtful,” Mishra, who previously led Indian negotiations at United Nations Climate Change Conferences as secretary, told PTI.
When asked about BRICS’ New Delhi declaration acknowledging that “fossil fuels will still play an important role in the world’s energy mix,” CEEW’s Pallavi Das noted that while developed nations can easily transition to clean energy due to their stable demand, a sudden shift is unrealistic for developing countries where energy demand continues to surge.
Highlighting the need for a balanced approach, Shailly Kedia, Director at The Energy and Resources Institute, said, “The question isn’t whether developing countries, including BRICS nations, should transition away from fossil fuels, a transition does need to happen. But carbon debt should not be used as a license for unlimited fossil fuel use either.”
Kedia highlighted that it is important to recognise that while all countries under the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have agreed to a common goal of climate stabilisation, they are starting from different points.
“This is what climate justice is about, recognising these different starting points and national circumstances. At COP31, the principle of CBDR-RC and national circumstances will remain central, whether in discussions on climate finance, the global goal on adaptation, or broader negotiations,” she said.
The CBDR-RC principle stresses that each country is responsible for addressing climate change and that developed countries should bear primary responsibility, as they account for most of the historical and current GHG emissions.
CANSA’s Sanjay Vashist underscored that BRICS nations continuing with fossil fuels could risk their development gains being wiped out by climate disasters, and that under CBDR, developed countries must provide substantial climate finance, adaptation funding and technology transfer for developing nations to transition away from fossil fuels.
“In my view, BRICS’s position is also a negotiating strategy. However, the UNEP Emissions Gap Report shows that developing countries are already doing more to cut emissions than developed nations,” Vashist told PTI, adding that developed nations are still far from meeting their fair share of emission reductions, as civil society reports have shown.
The 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP 31) is slated to be held in Antalya, Türkiye from November 9 to 20, with Australia taking on the role of President of Negotiations. PTI ABU ARI
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