EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Deep and effective India UK cooperation would add immense value to the global climate action agenda. India, as the biggest developing emitter and the UK, as a member of the G7 represent the two opposing blocs of the CBDR narrative. Together, this partnership could impress upon both blocs the urgency and transparency required to fulfil the mammoth tasks that lay ahead of us to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target.
In order to meet this target and the interim milestones on this pathway, a partnership framework between India and the UK that aligns individual strands of strategic and multilateral priorities with elements of climate change and energy would be a big step forward.
Beyond the existing collaboration avenues of energy transition, resilience, climate finance etc., India and UK could work together on the following to strengthen bilateral and international cooperation in climate action:
- 1. Identifying elements for a reformed multilateral architecture focused on monitoring and implementation
- 2. Learning best practices from the UK’s Climate Change Committee to establish a new climate governance institution in India.
- 3. Framing ground rules for the Global Stocktake in 2023
- 4. Synergizing the bilateral trade agenda with mutual climate priorities
Other avenues for potential India UK climate collaboration, bilaterally and internationally, include cooperation under the aegis of ISA and CDRI, exploring the future of food security, cross border linkages between climate and air quality, governance of geoengineering and regulation of fourth generation nuclear reactors.
Observing the strides made domestically in the UK in recent years with regards to using the climate lens across sectors points to the accountability created in the country that has the COP Presidency. India could consider offering to host a COP to energize climate action planning at all levels domestically.
- Making commitments real and meaningful – in the calculus of global emissions target planning, commitments of all countries are interdependent and the metric of success is contingent on the willingness of each individual country to fulfil their end.
- This interdependence necessitates deep and multi-layered international cooperation in areas like intellectual property, finance, the policy systems that facilitate private finance, public – private partnership arrangements in the fields of backup insurance for the risks being taken by governments etc.
- The existing international framework is not structured to monitor and ensure implementation of an exercise this enormous. Thus, we need a re-configured institutional framework which is more effective, integrative and transparent:
REFORMS IN THE MULTILATERAL ARCHITECTURE
Recently, strides have been made in the global current of climate actions, commitments and target achievements. While we celebrate these landmarks which seemed improbable a decade ago, we need to insist upon reminding each other of the sheer magnitude of the endeavour we are yet to undertake on our path to an impossible target – bringing global emissions down to net zero by 2060.
Getting from here to there involves colossal transformation within countries on almost everything they do. Imminently, this will involve:
OTHER AVENUES TO EXPLORE INDIA UK CLIMATE COLLABORATION
Under the ambit of ISA, India has been working with the US and Japan to promote solar power through foreign aid development systems in various parts of Africa.India and the UK could forge a development partnership in this vein.
There is potential for India UK collaboration for jointly developing standards for investments in building resilient infrastructure. These standards could be facilitated with and through the CDRI.
Understanding how nuclear plays a role in the transition away from fossil fuels. India and the UK, as nuclear nations, would benefit from exploring how we learn from each other’s past mistakes and if there are any internationally collaborative ways to move further and faster in the transition utilizing nuclear energy.
The technological sequencing element would get better addressed with the next IPCC report. In the meantime, a joint exercise with experts to create regulation standards for the upcoming fourth generation nuclear reactors would be helpful.
There is potential for India UK collaboration for jointly developing standards for investments in building resilient infrastructure. These standards could be facilitated with and through the CDRI.
The impact of climate change on India’s food systems has been long evident, with about 194 million people struggling for food and nutritional security today. The poorer, more vulnerable farmers lack access to resources such as capital, credit, and information required to make transformative adaptation changes. In the UK, between April 2019 and March 2020, 8% of households were food insecure. However, that figure increased to 43% for households relying on the pre-pandemic rate of Universal Credit. Child food poverty in particular has risen dramatically over the course of the pandemic.
Going forward, tackling the twin challenges of climate change and food insecurity will require bold, innovative approaches at scale. Collaboration between India and the UK to share best practices and jointly explore action plans for imminent climate change triggered food insecure scenarios would be mutually beneficial.
Currently, the food system generates about 35% of total global man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Production of animal-based foods generates more GHG emissions than plant-based foods, which is why shifting toward a more plant-based diet is recognized as an option for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
There is a pressing need for development of better tools to estimate emissions from individual plant- and animal-based food items, with more details about how emissions are calculated and covering all food-related sub-sectors, such as land use change and actions beyond the farm gate. India and the UK could trigger international momentum towards the development of these tools.
Air Quality has been a matter of health, political and electoral concern in both India and the UK. In 2019, scientists from the UK collaborated with counterparts in the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras to drive science-based policy solutions. However, there have been no formal G2G or B2B initiatives between the two countries to study the gamut of the climate change – air quality nexus. Cross border study of and collaboration in air quality concerns would be relevant for both sides.
In recent years, various ideas have emerged of potential interventions in the Earth’s climate system to limit global warming. The supporting argument for such interventions is for them to serve an interim, remedial function while economies around the world complete their energy transitions. Solar Radiation Modification and large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal are two examples of geoengineering technologies under international consideration. Large scale deployment of these technologies would have immense impacts on water, land, energy, food etc., potentially resulting in grave environmental, geopolitical and health consequences across the planet.
Clauses and mentions relevant to governance of geoengineering can be found in some multilateral agreements like UNFCCC, CBD etc. but there is a need to develop a comprehensive plan for governance guidelines, impacts, risk/cost – benefit, deployment methodologies and standards for geoengineering.
India and the UK could lead the charge of bringing together key allies to undertake the development of this framework.
