Norwegian prime minister and director WHO, G.

H Brundtland exemplify sustainable

development as ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of

future generation to meet their own needs’.

The notion to project an economy for sustainable development came in ’92 during a UN

conference on environment and development (UNCED), popularly known as Earth

summit, held at Brazil. Out of its five significant conclusions, Agenda 21 proposes global

initiatives and policies on sustainable development in social, economic and practical

context for the 21st century. It elegantly summarizes objectives, various conditions and

ways to achieve sustainable developments but sadly missed out relevant issues of

environmental ethics and implementation details of such ethical decisions.

Should we continue to chop off forests and land to supplement urbanization and

industrialization? What environmental obligations we need to hold in context of using

fossil fuel powered vehicles and green-house-emission industrial processes? What moral

we owe to species that are near-extinct and whether we need to check our energy and

food consumption for the sake of future generation are some of the eco-centric views we

need to follow.

1. Economic and Social Conditions: Progress so far

1.1 GDP Growth

Table 1: The 2008-2009 projected values
Percentage change over previous year 2008-2009 PROJECTED (%)
1. Agricultural and allied activities 2.0
2. Mining and quarrying 7.5 INDUSTRY = 7.5
3. Manufacturing 7.2
4. Elec. Gas and water supply 6.5
5. Construction 8.5
 6. Trade, hotels, transport, storage and 9.8 SERVICES = 9.6
communication
7. Finance, insurance, real estate & 10.0
business services
8. Community and personal services 8.4
9. Gross Domestic Product 7.7
(factor cost and constant prices)
Non agriculture (9-1) 8.9
Gross Domestic Product (factor cost and 6.2
constant prices) per capita
Source: Economic Outlook 2008-2009 by PM’s EAC.

1.2 Urbanization: As per 2001(the latest) Census Report, 25.73% population of India

lives in urban towns and cities; the remaining 74.27% live in villages.

1.3 Population:
Table 2: Population Projections for India
Indices Period
2001- 2006-11 2011-16
06
1 Projected life expectancy at birth
Male 63.87 65.65 67.04
Female 66.91 67.67 69.18
2 Total Fertility Rate 2.88 2.68 2.52
3 Projected population (in millions) 1094.1 1178.9 1263.5
(2006) (2011) (2016)
Source: Registrar General of India, (2001), Census 2001

1.4 Comparison between % growth in GDP and Power generation since 2001.

Both the power generation and GDP growth has been approximately a constant figure in

these years as shown below.

However, the steep in power growth is higher than that in GDP for later years.

GDP and Pow er

10
GDP
8 Growth
Percent

6
Power
4 Genera
tion
2
2000-

2001-

2002-

2004-

2005-
2003-

2006-
03

06

07
01

02

04

05

Years

Source: Economic Survey 2007

1.5 Power generation and Usage:

Table 3 : Power generation by utilities (BKWh)

Categoryb 2005- 2006-07 April-December Growtha(%)
06
2006 2007 2006 2007
1.Power 617.5 662.5 493.3 525.9 7.5 6.6
Generation
i)Hydro-electric 101.3 113.4 91.8 100.7 13.8 9.8
ii)Thermal 497.2 527.6 385.6 407.4 6.1 5.7
iii)Nuclear 17.2 18.6 13.6 12.8 3.0 (-)5.7
Memorandum
Item
PLF in % 73.6 76.8 75.3 77.2
a= April December
b= excludes generation from captives and non conventional power plants below 20 MW
units and hydro power plants below 2MW but includes import of power by Bhutan

Energy Usage: Consumption and Production:

World Consumption of Primary Energy by Source

1990 Consumption
1999 Consumption
160
Quadrillion BTU

120

80

40

0
Nuclear Electric
Hydroelectronic

GeothermalSolar,
Natural gas

Coal
Petroleum

Wind Electric
Power
Power

Power

Energy Resources

Source: http:www.indiabudget.nic.in
 Center, State and Private Type by source

14%
3%
34% Center
25% Thermal
State RES

Private Hydro
Nuclear
8% 64%
52%

Distribution of Installed Capacity as on 31-12-2007

Source: http:www.indiabudget.nic.in

2. Socio-economic Pressures on the Environment:

Deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, air pollution from industrial effluents and

vehicle emissions, water pollution from arsenic, raw sewage runoffs of agricultural

pesticides are some of the important environmental issues which demand immediate

attention.

Electronic waste has become a new environmental menace. World over, almost 50

million tons of electronic waste or e-waste is generated annually. India produces e-waste

of about 3,00,000 tones per annum, out of which only 5% of precious metal can extracted

[1]. A Silicon Valley Toxics coalition report predicts that 500 million computers will

become obsolete by 2007 resulting in 6.32 billion pounds of plastic and 1.58 billion

pounds of lead. Toxic materials like lead, cadmium, and mercury etc., make e-waste a

health hazard [2]. Further studies of satellite images from NASA suggested that there

may be no ice left by 2013 on N-Pole. (Times of India, New Delhi (Late Edition) August 11,

2008 )

Table 4: Green House Gases

GHG(CO2 equivalent) 1994 1,228,540 Giga gram Per Year (Gg)

Per capita GHG (1994) 1.3 tones
Main Constituent of GHG (1994) CO2 (65%), CH4 (31%), N2O (4%)
Main Contributors of GHG Energy Sector 61%. Agriculture 28%,
Industrial Process 8%, Waste 2%, Land
Use and Land Use Change and Forestry
(LULUCF) 1%
Source: MoEF, (June 2004), India’s Initial National Commitments to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, Govt. of India.

2.1 Emissions of Green House gases

Emission of greenhouse gases is one of the major sources of pollution in the world.

Prime causes as its defined in the third report of the UN IPCC in 2001 and explicitly

endorsed by the national science academics of G8 nations in 2005 are emissions of

astronomical volumes of green house gases like CO2 released by burning of fossil fuels,

land clearing and agriculture and other human activities

The rise in global temperature thus, also tend to bring disastrous changes such as

producing new patterns and extremes of drought and rainfall, unsettling of food

productions, adversely affecting ecosystem and biodiversity, etc.

Ozone depletion is another consequence of our lack of environmental concerns, perhaps

more perilous than global warming and acid rains.

Table 5: CO2 Emission by top 10 nations, 2003

Rank Nation ('000 M.T. of CO2)
1 United States Of America 1580175
2 China (Mainland) 1131175
3 Russian Federation 407593
4 India 347577
5 Japan 336142
6 Germany 219776
7 Canada 154392
8 United Kingdom 152460
9 Republic Of Korea 124455
10 Italy (Including San Marino) 121608
Source : NASSCOM Survey 2007.
 100
90
% of Global Total
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
l

a
y

a
ta

o
ne

ic
a

ce
R a

ut and
M a
G dia
SA

si
K

ly
ad
an

ic
e
n

si
To

pa

fr
ai

an

ne
or
hi

Ita
us

ex
In

an

A
U

So Pol
kr
Ja
C

Fr

do
al

er

h
U
b

In
lo
G

Nation
Major Emitting countries of the world (1995 data).

Table 6: Share in global CO2 emissions (%)

1990 2003
United States 23.04 23.06
China 10.41 14.07
Russia 9.67 6.38
Japan 4.54 4.79
India 2.63 4.07
Germany 4.24 3.35
Canada 2.19 2.39
United Kingdom 2.76 2.24
Italy 1.91 1.85
France 1.80 1.63
Rest of World 38.61 36.17
1Russia 1990 numbers are for 1992.
2Germany 1990 numbers are for 1991.
Source: Based on data from USDOE.

Table 7: Source wise percentage contribution of CO2

Year LPG Naptha MG Kerosene HSDO LDO FO LSHS Coal Total C
All 1 0.33 1.893 1.23 3.443 8.424 0.91 4.19 1.684 77.88 100.000
India 980 0 9 4 0 3
2 1.80 3.014 1.70 2.929 9.834 0.37 1.96 1.301 77.07 100.000
000 9 6 0 2 6
LPG: Liquified Petroleum Gas; MG: Motor Gasoline; HSDO: High Speed Diesel oil;
LDO: light diesel oil; FO: furnace oil; LSHS: low sulphur heavy stock;
Emission of CO2 by type of economy.

Per Country Percentage of CO2 emission by Type

of Economy
3.5
3

2.5
% Emission

1.5

0.5

0
High-Income Middle-Income Lower-Income

Note: The classification of countries is according to the classification made in the World Development
Report, World Bank. The Upper- middle and Lower- middle income countries have been reported together
as “ Middle Income” countries.
Source: Compiled from ORNL data.

2.2 Water and Sanitation: In 2002, only 30% population of India had sustainable access

to improved Sanitation and 86% of the population with sustainable access to improved

water source. (HDR, 2005) The per capita availability of fresh water in the country has

dropped from an acceptable 5,180 cubic meters in 1951 to 1,820 cubic meters in 2001. It

is estimated that this will drop to 1,340 cubic meters by 2025 and to 1,140 cubic meters

by 2050. This is alarming as the threshold per capita value for water stress is 1,000 cubic

meters. India, with 16% of world’s population has only 2.5% of the world’s land

resources and 4% of the fresh water resources. Arsenic contamination of ground water is

another major problem. Pollution by agrochemicals has contaminated many drinking

water sources. Between 1970-71 and 2002-03, application of pesticide in agriculture

increased from 24,320MT to 48,350 MT. In this period the total pesticide used in India
amounted to 18, 39,121.62 MT a portion of which polluted both ground and surface

water [3].

Case Study 1: Coastal ‘Dead Zones’ spreading Globally.

A recent study published in journal Science showed that there is

an alarming amplification (of about one-third this year) in the

number of coastal dead zones and their clusters, places of ocean

bed where marine life cannot survive due to lack of dissolved

oxygen (anoxic area), on the coasts of US, Europe, in Baltic sea

(hosting the world’s largest dead zone), at the mouth of China’s Yantgze river and the

Pearl River mouth near Hong Kong, in the northern Adriatic Sea, the Yellow Sea, the

Gulf of Thailand, anoxic basin is the Cariaco Basin near the coast of Venezuela and many

elsewhere. Intensive fertilizer washes off and burning of fossil fuels wash off are the

main reason for this phenomenon. (The Times of India, New Delhi, Late Edition,

17.08.08)

2.3 Climate Change: Climate change is one of the most important global environmental

challenges facing humanity with implications for food production, natural ecosystems,

freshwater supply, health, etc. According to the latest scientific assessment, the earth’s

climate system has demonstrably changed on both global and regional scales since the

pre-industrial era. Further evidence shows that most of the warming (of 0.1 degree

Celsius per decade) observed over the last 50 years, is attributable to human activities [4]

The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the global mean

temperature may increase between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius by 2100. This
unprecedented increase is expected to have severe impacts on the global hydrological

system, ecosystems, sea level, crop production and related processes. The impact would

be particularly severe in the tropical areas, which mainly consist of developing countries,

including India.

3. Economic Development: Prioritizing Sustainability:

3.1 Sustainability: Who’s responsibility?

National and global stakeholders, research organizations, sustainability coordinators and

people at local level urgently need to broadly hunt rational and innovative approaches and

use of bio-technological tools to look for cleaner fuel alternatives and project for

sustainable development, so that the dependency on fossil fuels for transportation and

power generation, that holds the nerve of industries and countries growth, can be

intensely shrink besides strategically shifting the geopolitics slope of oil reserves from

oil exporting countries in the middle east, that alone produce 40% of the worlds oil, to a

wider spectrum of globe.

The government and adjoin local partners has to act like an entrepreneurs, teachers,

researchers and consolidated management teams in providing infrastructure, awareness

and educational opportunities to all citizens so as to promote inclusiveness of all-citizen

potential that has been sadly ignored, to help freeze inflation and rigidifies sustainable

growth

3.2 Role of Law and Regulatory & Institutional Authorities: Global Efforts: The

United Nations Conference on Human Environment in 1972 at Stockholm was the first

international initiative to discuss environmental problems. Later, the World Commission

on Environment and Development (WECD) was setup in 1983.In the 1980s, the scientific
evidence linking GHG emissions from human activities with the risk of global climate

change started to arouse public concern. The United Nations General Assembly

responded in 1990 by establishing the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for

Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UNFCCC held in 1992 at Rio de

Janeiro adopted the framework for addressing climate change concerns which included:

 ‘The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development’, listing 27 principles of

sustainable development.

 ‘Agenda 21’, a detailed action plan for sustainable development in the twenty first

century, and

 ‘The convention on Biological Diversity’

The UN Conference of Parties held in Kyoto in 1997 adopted the Kyoto Protocol as the

first step towards addressing climate change. The Kyoto protocol is a legally binding

international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was initially negotiated

during a meeting held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. The protocol commits industrialized

countries to reducing emissions of six greenhouse gases by five percent by 2012. Some of

the reduction targets are for the US (seven percent), the European Union, Switzerland

(eight percent), Canada, and Japan (six per cent). The agreement specifies that all parties

to the protocol must follow a number of steps, some of which are given below: [5]

 Design and implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation

programmes

 Preparation of a national inventory emission removal by carbon sinks

 Promotion of climate friendly technology transfer

  Fostering partnerships in research and observations of climate science, impacts,

and response strategies

China, for example, has set for itself a target of reducing its energy intensity by 20% over

a period of five years or at the rate of 4% per year.

Case Study 2: Rich Countries face Climate Heat.

Asian rival India and China have joined forces to make a forceful demand that rich

nations set aside 0.5%-1% of the GDP to help the developing world face the challenge

posed by climate change and make good their unfulfilled commitment towards cutting

back on green-house emissions. The move seeks to pressure these nations to part with

funds committed under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

Under UNFCC, rich countries are expected to fund measures by developing countries to

adapt consequences of climate change. In addition, rich countries, who have been blamed

for most of the accumulated climate change causing gas gases in the atmosphere today,

are required to provide funding to help other countries reduce emission without fixed

targets.

Indian Context:

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (MoEF), is primarily

concerned with the implementation of policies and programmes relating to conservation

of the country’s natural resources including lakes and rivers, its biodiversity, forests and

wildlife, ensuring the welfare of animals and prevention and abatement of pollution.

While implementing these policies and programmes, the Ministry is guided by the

principle of sustainable development and enhancement of human well being as outlined

in Agenda 21. The Ministry serves as the nodal agency in the country for the United

Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), South Asia Co-operative Environment

Programme (SACEP), and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

(ICIMOD) and for the follow-up of the United Nationals Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED). The Ministry is also entrusted with the issues relating to

multilateral bodies such as the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Global

Environment Facility (GEF) and of regional bodies such as the Economic and Social

Council for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) and the South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation (SAARC) on matters pertaining to environment. Besides legislative

measures, a National Conservation Strategy and Policy Statement on Environment and

Development and Development (1992), National Forest Policy (1988), a Policy

Statement on Abatement of Pollution (1992); Biodiversity Act (2002) and a National

Environment Policy (2005) have also been developed. In addition to these, to conserve

petroleum products, the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) was set-

up in 1978 by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG). The Bureau of Energy

Efficiency was established under the Energy Conservation Act in 2001 and effective 1st

March 2002 is now under the Ministry of Power (MOP). The mission of BEE is to

develop policies and strategies on self-regulation and market principles within the overall

framework of the energy Conservation Act with primary objective of reducing energy

intensity of the Indian economy.

Some of the other measures are:

 Make clean technologies mandatory in new industries

 Make functioning treatment facilities mandatory

  Require environmental audits for industry

 Provide effective right to information

Case Study 3: Green Idea

Maharastra is the sixth state after Mizoram, Asaam, Orissa, MP and Chattisgarh to come

up with a State Forest Policy following the national forest commission’s recommendation

in 2006. as part of the policy, Maharastra is planning on becoming the first state in the

country to levy a green tax to encourage forest development. The policy aims at raising

forest cover in the state to a minimum of 33% (101.54 lakh hectares) of total land, as per

the recommendations of the Planning Commission and the National Forest Policy, 1998.

Case Study 4: Centre to adopt Dhoraji model for Plastic Recycling

India’s first plastic waste recycling-cum-production cluster has come up at Dhoraji in

Rajkot district of Gujrat. The centre, under its initiative ‘Keep City Clean & Green’

proposes to setup plastic waste recycling clusters at every 500 km across the country to

make the environment pollution-free. (The Economics Times, New Delhi, Monday 18 August
2008.)

Case Study 5: Solar Energy target set at 10,000 MW

The government has set a target of 10,000 mw of solar energy generation by 2020. The

initiative is part of the solar energy emission of the National Action Plan for Climate

Change. The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) will spell out a

comprehensive mission agenda by the end of October 2008 to operationalise the plan to

enhancing contribution of solar energy in total energy mix.

Economic Incentives:

Tax may be levied on polluting industries to discourage pollution emission by the company.

Natural resources are often sold at a very low price, leading to their exploitation. For

example, the subsidies on irrigation water have led to planting of highly water intensive crops

in regions inappropriate for this kind of agriculture.

Excessive use of water has also resulted in water logging as well as depletion of ground water

table making the soil saline. Removing inappropriate subsidies is essential to maintaining

natural resources and would encourage development of more environmentally friendly

alternatives.

Case Study 6: CII, Coke launch HP water conservation project.

In a collaboration that could have a far reaching benefit for the industry, the CII Northern

Region and Coca- Cola India announced the launch of Conserve, a water conservation

and management project in Himanchal Pradesh at a CII session on water conservation

organized in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, recently.

Case Study 7: Green Energy: initiative by Indian Oil

As part of the green energy initiative, Indian Oil Corporation’s first Solar Mini Utility for

charging solar lanterns was inaugurated at its Kisan Seva Kendraat Sathla, about 25 km

from Meerut. This project is being implemented by IOC with technical assistance from

TERI. This will, besides giving a 20 times brighter light than local debris, will enable

school going children to study after dark too.

Technological interventions: [6]

Cleaner technologies - active research needs to be conducted in producing cleaner

technologies – such as cleaner fuel, more efficient cars etc. The global market for low

carbon energy efficient technologies will be $3 trillions by 2050, throwing up significant

commercial opportunities. [7]

Case Study 8: BPCL to set up solar power project

Public sector oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd announced foray into

solar power generation by deciding to set up its first solar photovoltaic power project of 1

MW capacity in Punjab. BPCL, which entered into developing renewable energy projects

two years back, also has plans to set up new wind power project in Rajasthan, Gujrat,

Maharashtra and Tamilnadu of 5-10 MW each. The company is also going for a massive

plantation of Jatropha in Uttar Pradesh under the aegis of biofuel mission cell to produce

oil in order to replace diesel

Case Study 9: Oil’s Well: New energy sources could change geopolitics.

Some scientists are closing in on a chemical process to extract climate-ruining emissions

of CO2 from the atmosphere and change it back to fuel again. Researching , developing

and introducing new technologies that are cleaner and less dependent on exploitation of

fossil fuels could adjust the geopolitical slant to great extent. Remember, the world’s

energy consumption has increased by 8 per cent since 1970 and it is expected to go up by

another 60 per cent over the next 20 years. It is time to explore urgently all possible

alternatives we have.

Efficient irrigation – Since 84% of all water in India is used for agriculture, efficient

irrigation is the best method to deal with water wastage. For example, applying water to the
roots of crops through drip irrigation saves a considerable amount of water. It also prevents

soil erosion or water logging.

Integrated pest management – Using integrated pest management (targeting the insects

using natural methods) instead of pesticides would reduce pollution greatly.

Vermiculture and organic manures – Vermiculture has been shown to be an effective

method to deal with organic solid waste, which is becoming a major problem in urban areas.

If the community can be made to sort their garbage (citizen sorting has been effective in

many industrialized cities) this can also provide organic manure.

Role of Individuals, Organizations, and NGOs:

Responsibility for sustaining environment lies with every human being and every

organization. Without there efforts SD can not be achieved.

The situation among Indian enterprises is not so encouraging, said the study titled

‘Climate Change: Is India Inc Prepared?’ Some 41% of respondent indicate having goals

for carbon reduction by 2010, but 38% of them have no such goals whatsoever [8].

Case Study 9: American Colleges compete to be the Greenest of them all

Higher education can’t resist a ranking: besides being best in all avenues, the Princeton

University recently added a new arena in its annual guide to colleges this week, it will

include a new metric: a “green rating,” giving points for things like “environmentally

preferable food,” power from renewable sources and energy efficient buildings. In a

Princeton review survey this year of 10300 colleges applicants, 63% said that a college’s

commitment to environment could affect their decision to go there.

Conclusion:
The current phenomenon to achieve sustainability, as visioned by numerous conferences

world wide, seems to virtually house a cold war between developing countries and those

with the emission statistics of developed. Clearly, the consumption of the latter is more

and so forth their emission rates. However, as seen in various surveys, emissions rate in

the developing countries also seems to climbing as industrialization rapids and their

government plans to boosts their economies respectively. Poor efficiency products, quest

to rapidify progress are amongst other factors that cause a growth rate of emissions in

developing countries to rise unexpectedly.

Finally, one thing is sure, that we can not afford to neglect environmental issues in face of

economic development or poverty alleviation, rather, environmental pressures are

themselves related to socio-economic issues like population, literacy and awareness. This

relation needs to be exploited to achieve sustainability in its truest sense.

Secondly, the economic activities must be conducted using environment conserving and

resource saving technologies. Managing environment though better urban designs,

improvement in transportation infrastructures and creative use of information

technologies needs to be considered seriously.

Thirdly, policies for environmental governance should include priorities of law

enforcement, providing economic incentives, maximum people’s participation,

institutional reforms and innovative use of technical know-how.

It is pity that we have forgotten that the environment we have inherited was sustainable

but our activities and carelessness towards it, the careless ness that’s now returning to us

in a disastrous shape have put it as a subject of grave concern globally, despairing

thousands of environmentalist and biologists.

Of course, it’s a difficult but an obligatory goal, for India to accomplish sustainability

but, as pointed out in the preambles of every conference or convention we have seen on

environmental issues so far, with a firm determination of the government, private sector,

NGOs, and people, and we’ll definitely see India, achieving sustainable development in

its truest sense and vitality.