New Delhi
3 October 2009
President Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives plans to hold an underwater Cabinet meeting
on October 24, the day after he returns home from a two-day climate change conference
in New Delhi. Clad in scuba gear, President Nasheed and his Cabinet colleagues are
expected to issue a statement calling upon the international community to act unitedly
and decisively in the December 7 to 18 United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen. For the Maldives, an archipelago of 1,200 tropical islands just a few
metres above sea level, climate change is no vague or distant irritation but a clear and
present danger to our survival. Sea-level rise of even half a metre will make much of it
uninhabitable, bringing with it a host of problems, some foreseen and some unforeseen.
According to a media report, Maldives was exploring the possibility of purchasing land in
India, Sri Lanka or even Australia in order to move its citizens to safety.
The Maldives is a striking example, but the implications of climate change on a
country's national security are not far to seek. No country, least of all India, is likely to
remain immune to the consequences of climate change. Bangladesh is suffering from
saltwater intrusion as seas rose. India is vulnerable, too, and its implications for the
security and well-being of the Indian population cannot be ignored. Already, climate
change is manifesting itself in the alarming changes in rainfall pattern, drought, flooding,
and extreme weather conditions such as cyclones. Migration, within the country and from
India's neighbourhood, and issues such as river waters and pandemics also will pose
challenges, dealing with all or some of which will require political will and diplomatic
dexterity. Who knows, maybe climate change will succeed where diplomats of India and
Pakistan failed, in resolving the Siachen glacier issue.
The implications of climate change on other issues such as trade and energy security
will also have an impact on how India conducts her foreign policy. As Minister of
External Affairs SM Krishna said in his intervention at the United Nations Climate
Change Summit Plenary in New York on 22 September, protectionist trade and border tax
response measures, which basically seek to protect their (developed world)
competitiveness, are being talked about in developed countries under the garb of climate
change. Put simply, it means that the United States and some other developed countries
propose to employ unilateral trade measures, such as tariffs or taxes on the developing
countries, on the grounds of combating climate change. For the Indian diplomats, the
climate -- trade issue can also pose further challenges in the negotiations in the World
Trade Organisation (WTO). Vice President Hamid Ansari alluded to some of these
concerns in a recent speech to a conference organised in New Delhi. He said that the
lack of a global agreement on an equitable formula is likely to cause the climate change
negotiations to spill over to other multilateral, regional and bilateral negotiating
platforms, further accentuating existing divisions such as North -- South, East -- West,
and Developed -- Developing countries.
Between now and the start of the Copenhagen Conference, India's diplomatic initiative is
geared towards ensuring that climate negotiations focusses on the developed countries
from where the problem emanates and who are reluctant even to meet their commitments
on emission reduction, let alone provide technological and financial support to
developing countries on the vast scale that is required. Towards that end, India is
working in close coordination with the Group of 77 (G-77), IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa),
and also the Group of Five (G-5), which comprises China, Mexico and the three IBSA
countries. India and China, who do not see eye to eye on a host of issues, find
themselves on the same page on the climate negotiations.
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