As global carbon dioxide breaks records, India faces dilemma

During the week of April 6 to 12 2015 average carbon dioxide CO2 levels touched 40402 parts per million ppm the highestever in recent human historymdashand 15 above the levels scientists say is ideal for Earth 350 ppm February March and April had monthly average CO2 levels higher than 400 parts per million ppm the first time in recorded history all three months have reached such levels according to the keystone Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii USASource Earth System Research Laboratory Note Left axis was cropped for a detailed view of the dataThese rising levels have growing relevance for India as it struggles with a farm crisis brought on by uncertain rainfall attributed increasingly to climate change as IndiaSpend recently reported India is the worldrsquos thirdlargest emitter of CO2 the chief greenhouse gas A renewed push for industrialisation will have to be balanced against further climate change The 400 ppm mark is a milestone when it comes to CO2 levels in the atmosphere and the first day to record such levels was May 9 2013 ldquoCurrent atmospheric CO2 values are more than 100 ppm higher than at any time in the last one million years and maybe higher than any time in the last 25 million yearsrdquo said Charles Miller Principal investigator at NASArsquos Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment after the 400 ppm threshold was passed ldquoEven more disturbing than the magnitude of this change is the fact that the rate of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere has been steadily increasing over the last few decades meaning that future increases will happen fasterrdquoEver upwardmdashglobal CO2 levelsApril 2014 was the first month in human history with an average CO2 level above 400 ppm April 2015 recorded a level of 40326 nearly two points higher than the same month last year In other words the records being set by CO2 levels are being consistently resetSource Earth System Research LaboratoryThe observatory in Hawaii has been recording CO2 levels since 1958 and annual CO2 levels have risen by 8258 ppm since then to reach 39855 ppm in 2014 thatrsquos an increase of 147 ppm per yearWhy this matters to IndiaThe rising CO2 levels have been linked by the UNrsquos intergovernmental panel on climate change IPCC in a 2014 report to rising ocean and land temperatures as well as rising sea levels over the past 35 years As to how rising CO2 levels have affected or would affect India specifically it is not clear Claims in a 2007 IPCC report that the Himalayan glaciers would melt away in the near future have proven to be not credible However as we said a series of studies have shown that unseasonal rain and erratic weather unsettling the Indian farmermdashand the nationrsquos agriculture economy and politicsmdashare no aberrationsDisquieting data bring domestic pragmatismAs the worldrsquos thirdlargest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions India may be in a unique position to affect atmospheric levels of CO2 While its total emissions are rising its percapita emissions at 19 metric tons are close to a third of the global average a quarter of Chinarsquos and an eighth of the USArsquosSource Global Carbon ProjectAn Indiaspendorg storyThe path of industrialisation and urbanisation that India adopts will have a significant impact on the worldrsquos warming and its own health status Already 13 of the worldrsquos 20 mostpolluted cities are in IndiaSource Global Carbon ProjectIndiarsquos stance at various conferences including the Climate Change Conference in Lima in 2014 has been that it was unfair to demand emissions cuts from developing countries The argument being that these economies were still growing compared to the developed world and that such emission levels would be unavoidable if they want to catch up However Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set India on an ambitious programme of using nuclear and renewable energy to power its industrialisation as it attempts to move some of roughly 600 million people working on farms to factories ldquoI think if you look at the whole world and the whole issue of climate change if there is one part of the world which can provide natural leadership on this particular cause it is this part of the worldrdquo Modi said in an interview to TIME magazine India may take an uncompromising position globally to protect its own interests but itrsquos difficult to ignore the warning signs from Mauna LoaIndiaspendorg is a datadriven publicinterest journalism nonprofit