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Double standards of the world`s green helmets

  • 30/08/1993

ENVIRONMENTAL NGOs in the US are rushing ahead of their government in both their desire and actions to act as the world's green helmets. A statement issued by the Environment Defence Fund and other US environmental groups at the time of the G-7 Tokyo Summit against the World Bank loan for the thermal power stations at Singrauli, describing it as an act that would "needlessly boost greenhouse gas emissions", is preposterous. According to the statement, the $400-million loan to the National Thermal Power Corp "will greatly boost carbon dioxide emissions from the developing world". And, for that, it goes on to criticise the G-7 nations for their approval of the loan.

Undoubtedly, there is a lot that is wrong with the Indian management of power stations in general and of those at Singrauli in particular. The NGO statement points out to a few: for example, the callousness with which the displacement and environmental problems have been dealt with. These shortcomings deserve to be criticised and rectified soon. But the charge that electricity generation in India contributes to the global greenhouse gas problem must be rejected.

The statement claims G-7's approval of the project is proof of its collective negligence of the commitments made at Rio. Surely, the weak response of the British, US, German, Japanese and other Northern governments to control their own countries' greenhouse gas emissions is proof enough of their lackadaisical leadership and half-hearted commitments.

US environmentalists are generally thrilled that they have got a pro-environment administration. Their access to the White House has never been greater. Yet, away from the Mount of Washington, Bill Clinton looks nothing more then a glib leader -- of whom there is no dearth in the South -- who talks more than he can deliver. President Clinton has not courageously taken on the gluttons of oil consumption in his country and is trying to accommodate every lobby to get his tax through. In Europe, the carbon tax is still doing the negotiating rounds, while greenhouse gas emissions rise or stagnate. US, German and Belgian abstention from approving the NTPC loan is thus a fine example of double standards.

Before these governments begin to talk of greenhouse gas emissions by Southern nations, they should set their own houses in order and in the process teach the Southern middle-classes a proper lesson or two. Instead, in the run-up to Rio they tried every trick in the trade -- with full support of their NGOs -- to rope in the South as a global warming villain and they continue to do so even today. But they know well there is no agreed basis to argue that India, Bangladesh or the Maldives contribute even an iota to the global warming problem. Who will then force the US to compensate them for the threat posed to their shores by its profligate consumption? It is possible for EDF and other US green groups to train their guns on their own great government and force it to behave as a better global citizen?

An EDF spokesperson explained to Down To Earth that the World Bank flouted its own energy policy by not insisting on a good demand-side management component in the NTPC project loan that would improve energy use efficiency and thus keep greenhouse gas emissions constant. Again, the insistence on greater energy efficiency is undoubtedly desirable on countless economic and environmental grounds, including the shortage of capital to meet the power needs of the country. But the bogey of greenhouse gas emissions has been raised only because it excites media headlines and the fertile minds of Northern publics, who would like to see others as culpable as themselves in the gluttonous use of the earth. This position is neither morally nor technically correct. It amounts to a gross abuse of economic aid mechanisms. The World Bank has always been servile to US economic interests. But now, that power is being used unashamedly with a green-tinged morality.