THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

by Jairam Ramesh
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Environment and Forests, Government of India

delivered at Asian Development Bank (ADB) Conference on the Environments of the Poor

New Delhi November 24th, 2010

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

I. INTRODUCTION1
Im delighted that ADB has organized this seminar at a time when there is an intense political debate in this country on the nature of environmentalism itself. On the one side, there are those who believe that environmental issues are really a middle class, elitist pastime, and have no relation to the development challenges that this country faces. On the other, there are many who would argue that the growing environmental movement or environmental consciousness that we are seeing today is actually the environmentalism of the poor and that it is because of the threat to livelihoods that environmental issues are coming to the forefront today. I think therefore, that an intellectual exercise like this seminar, which brings together different points of view and analytical work that is being carried out in various parts of the world on the links between poverty, mainstream developmental issues and environmental issues, is opportune and very relevant. I have read some of the papers that have been listed for this conference and I am sure they would have much value to add to the ongoing debate. In the process of mainstreaming environmental issues as part of the poverty reduction agenda, it seems to me that there are three very important aspects that we have to keep in mind: 1. the climate change aspect, which is gaining increased signicance.

2. the public health aspect, which is often neglected; and 3. the natural resources aspect, which is also very important and often does not get the attention that it deserves. All of what I am going to say today is born out of the Indian experience.

II. THE POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE LINK

Let us take the climate change aspect rst and analyse the relationship between environment and poverty reduction issues in the context of climate change.
1

The international conference was organized by ADB and NCAER in cooperation with 14 other development

partners, and held on 24-26 November 2010 in New Delhi. For more information see the conference website at http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2010/Environments-Poor/default.asp.

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

It is believed in many quarters in India that we have not caused the problem of global warming; why should we take proactive actions to address it? We have not had an aggressive domestic agenda on climate change. Our domestic actions have been dictated by our international negotiating positions. Now, why do we need a domestic agenda? That is a very important question. The obvious reason, which should be clear to us all, is that there is no country in the world that is going to be as profoundly affected by climate change as India. Many countries have points of vulnerability to climate change, but I cannot think of any other country in the world that is more vulnerable than India. Let us look at some of these points of vulnerability. First of course, is our dependence on the monsoon. Even though less than 18% of our GDP now depends on agriculture, there is no running away from the fact that variations in GDP growth are driven by variations in the performance of the monsoon. In spite of all the impressive gains that we have made in terms of diversication of our economy, the fact is that 2 out of 3 Indians still depend on agriculture or agriculture related occupations for employment. Therefore, there is extraordinary dependence on the monsoons, not just by the agricultural sector, but also the other sectors of the economy due to its spillover and multiplier effects. An analysis of data from the last 50 years shows that 40-45% of our uctuations in GDP are on account of variations of monsoon alone. So the monsoons are critical. What happens to the monsoon is, perhaps to my mind, the single largest determinant of prosperity in India. The second point of vulnerability arises from the fact that we have a large population living in our coastal areas. We have a large peninsula with millions of people living on the coast who can only be classied as highly vulnerable to rising mean sea levels. Now, if there is one aspect of the IPCC that cannot be scientically challenged, that has the strength of robust evidence behind it, it is the fact that climate change is going to affect mean sea levels. This is almost an incontrovertible conclusion that has been arrived at. Therefore, while we are rightly concerned about Maldives, Bangladesh and all other countries vulnerable to a rise in mean sea levels, the fact is that there is no other country as vulnerable to this threat than India, just in terms of the sheer number of lives impacted: we have 250300 million people living on our coast starting from the 2

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

Sunderbans in West Bengal, extending all the way up to Gujarat. I am talking of almost 13 states and union territories and a large portion of the population of India. The third point of vulnerability arises from what is predicted to happen to the Himalayan glaciers as a result of global warming. Evidence on this of course is somewhat mixed. I myself dont share in its entirety the gloom and doom that is painted by many climate evangelists for the future of the Himalayan glaciers. But the fact of the matter is that the health of the Himalayan glaciers is a cause for great concern. If the majority of Himalayan glaciers continue to retreat in the manner that they have been, they are going to seriously impact the amount of water availability in the North Indian rivers that are the lifeline for almost a billion people living in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh. And nally, the fourth major point of vulnerability arises from our dependence on the extraction of natural resources. The fact is that India has embarked on an 8-9% GDP growth drive in the last ve years, which we hope to sustain over the next 1520 years at the very minimum, and to do so will require increased extraction of our mineral resources. More and more we are discovering that coal reserves (which are essential for power generation) and other minerals are located in our forest areas. So the more coal we produce, the more forests we destroy, and the more forests we destroy, the more we add to our greenhouse gas emissions, besides all the concomitant ecological losses. I do not think that there is any country in the world that is as clearly and categorically vulnerable to climate change on so many dimensions: monsoons, the rising mean sea levels, the retreat of the Himalayan glaciers and the anticipated deforestation in response to the extraction of natural resources. To begin with, I think we need to recognize that India is profoundly impacted by climate change and that the response to this impact must be a mix of adaptation and mitigation. Though the M word (mitigation) was a taboo in India until recently, it is very important to our future. Although we are a very small emitter in per capita terms, we are today the worlds fourth largest emitter in absolute terms. China is at number 1, with 23% of world greenhouse gas emissions, the United States giving the Chinese a run for their money at 22%, the EU would be about 13% and India and Russia are roughly almost on par at about 5%. 3

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

Modeling studies conducted by the NCAER brings to light certain grave facts. It shows that the great advantage of having a denominator (i.e., population) that is 1 billion plus, growing by 10 million every year, is that on a per capita basis, we will always have low emission levels, but in absolute terms, if we continue our greenhouse gas emission prole, we could end up accounting for anywhere between 8.59% of worlds greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. As responsible global citizens, we should be concerned and we need to act now. An expansion in our international role comes with certain responsibilities. This does not mean we abdicate our negotiating position. It means that we are responsible for two agendas - we must negotiate internationally from a position of strength, but must also work proactively on the domestic front, taking substantive policy actions. So I think regarding the climate change connection between environmentalism and poverty reduction, it is very clear that we are vulnerable, and it is the poorer regions and communities that will bear the burden of this vulnerability. While this will call for adaptation and adaptation would mean largely a major investment in agriculture this will also call for a very signicant investment in mitigation.

III. THE POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT-PUBLIC HEALTH LINK

Now let me talk about the second dimension of this link between environment and poverty reduction which is related to public health. I believe that the public health dimensions of environmental issues have been grossly neglected in this country. And this is one reason why environmental issues do not get the strong response they deserve. When I tell my growth- walla friends You know environment is an important issue, theyll say, But you know 910 % GDP growth is more important. If I could tell them that by not dealing with environmental issues directly, we are really debilitating the Indian population, and eroding the long-term sustainability of this growth, I would probably get a better response from them. I think that we need to change the terms of the debate on environment in this country. We need to present it as a public health issue. This is not a marketing gimmick. One of the weaknesses of our country is that we do not have a strong 4

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

base of epidemiological data. But from whatever anecdotal evidence we have been able to gather from the various institutions and experts, I can condently say that there is a very close connection between conventional environmental and public health issues. For example, about 25 years ago, the proportion of children with respiratory diseases in Bangalore, the IT capital of India, was less than 10%. But today, data seems to suggest that almost 30% of people in Bangalore suffer from asthma or some other respiratory diseases. Bhatinda, a prosperous agricultural region of Punjab has today emerged as one of the major epicenters of cancer. This has been directly attributed to land degradation and more importantly to water contamination and water pollution. So when you really look at the environmental effects of many economic activities, whether it is in agriculture or industry, you will nd that there have are many negative health impacts that are signicantly related to these activities, which in my view, will act as a severe drag on our ability to sustain our high rate of growth for a long period of time. There is an excellent report of Indian poverty carried out by Anirudh Krishna from Duke University that has been recently released. Anirudh, a former IAS ofcer, has been a Professor of Duke for a long time. He has done one of the most comprehensive analyses of Indian poverty. The one powerful conclusion that he has conrmed in his analysis (spread over more than a decade), is that rural expenditure on health is the primary reason families decline into poverty. Health expenditure, the inability to spend on health or the debt that you incur, all leads a family into poverty. There is today a very solid body of evidence to suggest that rural indebtedness in India is driven by expenditure on health. Today, a very signicant part of the expenditure on health would come from environment-related factors. So I am convinced that if we can persuade people to see the environmental issue as a public health issue, we would get somewhere in our attempt at integrating and mainstreaming environment into the developmental process.

IV. THE POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT-NATURAL RESOURCES LINK

I have spoken about the environment in the context of climate change. I have spoken about environment in the context of public health. Let me now talk 5

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

about environment in the context of natural resources. It is absolutely clear that sustaining 8 9% GDP growth over the next two decades or more will have a signicant impact on our natural resources. Its going to have a signicant impact on coal as I mentioned to you, on forestry, on water and land. A primary determinant of this growth is going to be our ability to use these natural resources in a sustainable manner. Most of the natural resources that are required to fuel economic growth in India are located in our forest areas and most of these forest areas happen to be in the poorer regions of our country. Out of the 600 districts of our country, the 188 districts in which the tribal population is a very substantial proportion, account for approximately 60% of our forest area. Therefore, there seems to be close nexus between poverty, forests, tribal population, the availability of natural resources, and I might add, social violence as well. It is a strong correlation. So we have to look at and address this dimension

V. POVERTY AN ECOLOGICAL PHENOMENON

The Vice-President of the ADB made a very important statement about the role of environmental factors in poverty. In fact this has been a very important issue that has engaged our attention for many years. Weve looked at educational poverty and health poverty, we measure poverty as consumption poverty and the NCAER does income poverty studies. But ecological poverty or the notion that poverty can arise from ecological factors, is a very important idea that we need to look at. From my experience I can say that in many parts of India, the single most important cause of poverty is land degradation. Land degradation is caused by a variety of environmental factors - some natural, some man-made. When land degradation is arrested, we will see a dramatic improvement in poverty levels. A very good example of this is one of the most successful World Bank projects on the reclamation of sodic soils in Uttar Pradesh. In the central part of Uttar Pradesh, small farmers are mainly low-caste farmers belonging to the weaker and discriminated sections of society. This area is really the poverty bowl of India and farmers are suffering immensely because of low yields from the land that they are cultivating, as these lands are mostly wastelands and have sodic

THE ENVIRONMENTS OF THE POOR - MAKING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INCLUSIVE

soils. A World Bank project was designed in the 1990s to reclaim the sodic soils. I can tell you that large parts of U.P. have been transformed solely by this critical intervention, which was to restore the productivity of the land, especially for the small farms cultivated by farmers belonging to the weaker sections of our society. Ecological poverty is extremely important and must be given adequate attention. We need to make a very systematic effort to design interventions that will ensure that ecological factors do not exacerbate poverty levels. In fact, many civil society organizations in India have worked very successfully on watershed development projects, water conservation, rainwater harvesting and the intelligent use of water for agricultural purposes, all of which have had dramatic effects on poverty levels.

VI. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that to me, environmentalism is meaningful only as environmentalism of the poor. There are of course lifestyle environmental issues but for the most part, livelihood environmental issues are what we are concerned with. And I think if we look at environment in the context of climate change, public health and natural resources, we will be able to appreciate better the link between environmentalism and poverty. We really need to redene the terms of environmental debate in our country because today environment protection is considered by many to be a drag on development. The whole debate has been conservation versus growth, environment versus development. I think this is a meaningless debate and if it is formulated in this fashion, environment cannot win this debate; who can argue against 9% economic growth? Therefore, we have to redene the terms of the debate on the environment and look at it in terms of poverty reduction. This is certainly a giant step forward. I look forward to working with the ADB and the NCAER on providing further operational content to this link and also making it a part of mainstream political discourses.

Thank you. 7