How to Shape Indias Sustainable Development Pathways under Climate Change?

India is at the crossroads of challenges and opportunities. As the largest

democracy and one of the largest growing economies in the world, India is also
home to the largest number of people without access to the basic facilities of
modern life. India is also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,
which will pose serious challenges to the sustainability of its agriculture and
livestock production, food and water security, coastal and urban settlements,
human health and disaster risk management. What are the challenges of
balancing rapid economic growth with sustainable development? How can this
sustainable development pathway be financed? These questions were discussed
at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (New Delhi).

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The conference was coordinated by Urmi Goswami, journalist at Economic Times.

The speakers were Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, Director-General of The Energy and
Resources Institute, Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ;
Manish Kumar Shrivastava, Fellow, Climate Change and Earth Science Division,
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, India ; Mark Halle,
Executive Director of the International Institute of Sustainable Development ;
Tancrede Voituriez, Associate Researcher and Programme Director Governance at
Cirad, Iddri, Paris ; Aalok Deshmukh, General Manager Energy Efficiency,
Schneider Electric India ; Aude Flogny, Regional Director for South Asia, Agence
Franaise de Dveloppement, New Delhi ; Vanita Suneja, Economic Justice Lead
Specialist, Oxfam India.

Please find below the Conference synthesis:

India is a very diverse country with enormous inequalities which need mitigation,
facing the challenge of equity and sustainability. It must improve its peoples life
conditions and economic capacities as well as find a new and sustainable
development pathway. Full of contradictions and disparities, India is renewing its
views and perspectives of development to ensure both equity and sustainability
which are intricate objectives that cannot be considered separately.

Indias development today should not compromise the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs. (Dr R. K. Pachauri)

As one of the largest country in the world and being one of the five first countries
by gas emissions, India has no choice to make between economic growth and
sustainability. Environmental experts estimate that 6% of GDP is lost to
climate risk and environmental factors. Therefore, India cannot afford
not to put its development onto a path towards sustainability (M.
Halle). And considering that India is really a continent by its size, its population,
its economic weight, etc., the future of global sustainable development will
depend to a large extent on what happens in this country. (M. Halle) Not only for
the sake of the world cause that is global warming limitation, but for its own
security, a sustainable pathway of development is the only one to consider.
Indeed, India is very vulnerable to climate change consequences such as the
level sea rise, the increasing water scarcity or the growing food insecurity.

As a country of more than 1.2 billion people, [India] must be part of the solution
[] and take advantage of a low carbon path of development. (Dr R. K.
Pachauri) More than ever, infrastructure, productivity and environment
conservation are opportunities to explore and are the three key words that
define Indias quest for sustainable development.(M. Kumar) Putting the country
on such a path is a huge pool of opportunities for business, for instance in the
energetic field.

For infrastructure to be sustainable in India, estimations are that $200 billion per
year are needed during 5 years. Currently ODA is about $15 billion a (good) year:
ODA is not going to cover the financing gap. (A. Flogny) It does not represent
the majority of the funds financing sustainable projects anymore; the private
sector and remittances are. ODA is more about mobilizing and accompanying
policy-makers towards greener choices with expertise. Which does not mean
international institutions decide for them. Change should come from developing
countries themselves and the terms of the dialogue between North and South
must be renewed in this way (T. Voituriez).

Finance raises issues that go well beyond finance. (M. Kumar)

International debates often question the amounts needed to switch development

pathways when they should concentrate on the use of this money to transform
the economy and shift political paradigm. (T. Voituriez) Finance scarcity is real
but does not explain the implementation problems [which] cannot be solved
only by financing. (T. Voituriez)

Political choices like investments in renewable energy sources are currently

made in India and are encouraging. But like many other countries, India spends
more on carbon-based fuels than on alternatives and providing incentives. A new
framework of how policies are constructed is necessary. The rules must and can
be changed and so can the risk profile. We need to move to a situation where
green development is rewarded and brown development is punished. (M. Halle)
Positive accountability is a better alternative. Changing the political and
economic paradigm would provoke a real policy alignment.

Change of society development model will happen only with the mobilization of
all the actors

The shift must be much wider and global. As well as countries, people should be
reinforced in their capacities to create opportunities of change. For instance, the
Indian government took actions in the field of agricultural adaptation. But at the
grass roots, on very specific issues, nothing is reaching the people (V. Suneja)
when they should be included in the choices and be actors of the sustainable
implementations. Green solutions and livelihoods exist in rural India and these
effective grassroots experiences must be aggregated to the higher level,
integrated to policy making and taken back to the rural areas in a loop. (V.
Suneja)

Private sector initiatives to disseminate success stories and incentives to drive

things at scale are required. (A. Deshmukh) A country as diverse and complex as
India should be swamped with pilots [projects] to see what works. (M. Kumar)
Setting up successful examples is a must do because it would demonstrate to
reluctant financial actors that these are bankable projects to invest in.
Compared to other countries, including emerging economies, there is reluctance
to get different players round the table. (A. Flogny) The government should
diversify their engagement with stakeholders in areas like building efficiency for
example, that is an opportunity for improvement. (A. Deshmukh)