Fighting global warming is a flawed Idea – Hypocrisy of 1st world highlighted by Economic Survey 2024

📕ES24: Fighting global warming is a flawed Idea

• Current approach to fighting climate change is flawed idea because it ignores trade-offs. – So, Countries had to push back their own timelines. e.g.(जलवायु परिवर्तन की लड़ाई= एक ख़ामियुक्त विचार. लक्ष्यांकों की अंतिम तिथि को पीछे धकेला जाता है क्योंकि वे वास्तविक समस्याओं को नज़रअंदाज़ कर रहे।)

📕ES24: Climate hypocrisy → political parties of first world

• rise of “alternative /green political parties” in first world e.g. Green Party (UK), Die Grünen (Germany), Partido Ecologista (Portugal) (वैकल्पिक हरित राजनीतिक पक्ष।)
• These alternative/green political parties are unfairly targeting/blaming the third World countries for the climate change. e.g.(1) carbon tax on imported goods from India/China. (2) demanding faster transition to renewable energy.
• this is unfairly affecting the livelihood and cost of living for the people in third world countries. (तीसरे विश्व के लोगों की आमदनी कम करता,जीवन यापन ख़र्च बढ़ाता है।)
• Bcoz Alternative energy sources require fiscal subsidies, whereas third world countries have low fiscal capacity esp. after dealing with the economic and health dislocations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Many countries also tax fossil fuels heavily (e.g. excise/VAT on petrol diesel in India). By clamping down on fossil fuel usage, governments will lose those tax revenues.
• It is morally wrong to tell developing countries to abandon their aspirations for better living standards so that developed countries can maintain their ways of living in cleaner environments and cooler climates. However, the Paris Agreement signed in December 2015 did precisely that. It sidelined the Sustainable Development Goals agreed upon barely three months earlier.
• The goal of securing global temperature within a certain numerical range (1.5–2C) has taken precedence over a broader set of welfare ambitions under SDG। (और इनके नीतिकार जलवायु परिवर्तन को ज़्यादा ज़ोर दे रहे हैं सतत् विकास लक्ष्यों की अवहेलना कर रहे हैं।)
• Bcoz, for climate scientists and 1st world Government negotiators have characterised the goal of climate policies in terms of a single numbers (e.g. 1.5–2C, NET-Zero emission etc) BUT global temperature is a seriously flawed index for capturing the full range of complex relationships between climate and human welfare and ecological integrity. (क्योंकि सतत् विकास लक्ष्यों की बात करेंगे तो बोहोत सारे लक्ष्यांकों पे सुधार करना होगा, उसके मुक़ाबले जलवायु परिवर्तन की बात ये आसान है क्योंकि उसमें केवल तापमान के एक लक्ष्यांक को ठीक करना है।)
• Whereas, “what’ll be do without fossil-fuelled industrialisation and technological progress” is more relevant problem for 3rd world nations than “what will we do without combating climate change” (लेकिन विकसित देशों के लिए ये जीवाश्म ईंधन के साथ औद्योगिक विकास वो जलवायु परिवर्तन से ज़्यादा महत्वपूर्ण है।)

📕ES24 → climate change or SDG which is more imp?

• The world needs a more balanced approach to the issue of climate change.
• It should also focus on nearer-term policy goals of improving human welfare rather than being excessively preoccupied with one large, longer-term goal of global climate management. (दीर्घावधि में जलवायु परिवर्तन से लड़ता उसके मुक़ाबले / तुलना मे नज़दीकी भविष्य में जनकल्याण ज़्यादा महत्वपूर्ण है)

Climate Funding: Government should not wait for private sector

• USA: post-WW II reconstruction, space-exploration, internet (ARPANET), and Highways construction – all started by Government and NOT private sector.
• Similarly, today, there is a need for public investment in carbon sequestration, carbon sinks, battery storage technologies, and green hydrogen. Government has to take the lead and should not wait for the private sector.
• Because Capitalism won’t deliver the energy transition fast enough.