There is a race of Olympic proportion raging in front of a packed and engaged global audience. Almost every country from the global south i...
There is a race of Olympic proportion raging in front of a packed and engaged global audience. Almost every country from the global south is lined up at the start line while the global north remains a few steps ahead (almost unfairly). No, I am not talking about the Covid-19 vaccination drive. Some (including me) would claim that the stakes are higher in this competition, existential even. I am talking about the race to net-zero carbon emissions.
More than 150 countries including South Africa, Japan, Canada and China have pledged to become net-zero carbon emitters by 2050. There were rumours floating in the news circle that India intends to make a bold statement by aiming for the same milestone by 2040 – a decade before China. Should all of us not be applauding and celebrating this most positive and much needed environmental commitment after the stark warnings that science has delivered on the calamitous impacts of global warming. Not quite yet!
Transition is not easy
A divorce from coal is a messy and complicated affair, even for the most well-equipped countries. It entails fundamental shifts in policies, economics, technology and social structures. In fact, it begins a chain reaction of technological and socio-economic processes paving structural rearrangements in...
