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Switched-on India:
How can India address climate change and meet its energy needs?

Author: Tim Gibbs
Contributors:
Price: Free
Publication Date: 09 January 2008

Climate change is an issue of social justice – particularly in developing countries. If the world is to avoid disastrous climate change while at the same time reducing poverty, then developing countries will need access to low-carbon fuels. Currently, however, these countries lack plentiful supplies of cheap, ‘clean’ energy.

Developing countries need access to energy if they are to reduce poverty. Energy is the motor of economic growth and access to electricity should be universal. Historically, both developed and developing countries have met the vast majority of their energy needs by burning fossil fuels.

The transition to a low-carbon economy can be made, but it will be costly. Estimates suggest that it might cost an additional US$30 billion per annum to de-carbonise power supplies in countries outside the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development).

India is a country that acutely illustrates the nature of the challenge involved in developing its economy and preventing dangerous climate change. India’s economy is growing at the rate of 9 per cent per annum, while pumping out large amounts of greenhouse gases. Yet the vast majority of the population literally live in darkness. Almost half of India’s households do not have electricity, and women and girls spend a total of 80 billion hours each year collecting firewood, a fuel that damages the lungs of 24 million adults. It will cost US$130 billion simply to ensure that all Indian households enjoy access to electricity by 2030 – a cost that would rise if this power were to come from clean fuel sources.

India’s dilemma raises significant questions of social justice. First, in a profoundly unequal world, how much effort should each country contribute to the protection of the global atmosphere? Second, what policy architecture and mechanisms can be devised to reach
climate goals and who will pay for these policies?