Environment & Industrial Development Are Not Mutually Exclusive

India sees a lot of duplicity in the stance of the developed world on the issue of global warming and climate change. It is rightly felt that now when India is on the path of rapid growth and development, the West with all its guile and cunning is changing the goal post arbitrarily and selectively cherry picking statistics to paint the ‘Third World’ in bad light. Our push for a five trillion dollar economy, though dented by COvid, literally sent jitters down the developed world’s spine as they are now facing the spectre of a changing world dynamics with India emerging as a new industrial powerhouse.

Historically speaking, India had to bear the brunt of imperialism. Not only trillions of dollars of our wealth and resources were looted for centuries, but more specifically we became a source of raw materials for their industries and a ready market for their finished goods. To make matters worse, our colonial master saw to it that we missed out on the Industrial Revolution and remained confined to the margins of economic deprivation with hunger, malnutrition and an abysmal health delivery mechanism being our constant companions.

The ‘First World’ is now unleashing a mis-information campaign, selecting sections of our intelligentsia which is being targeted with lopsided data so that they can put up roadblocks on the path of India’s industrial growth by declaring it the prime contributor of global warming.

Let us take just a few examples of their cherry picked data. The developed countries will always maintain that India is the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas polluter but never will they concede that it has one of the lowest per capita rates of greenhouse gas emissions – about roughly 1/20th of the US and Australia!

Secondly, it is well known that if Indians and Chinese people seek to own passenger cars at the rate of the US or own as many air conditioners, that would be an environmental disaster.

Thirdly, one-third of the world’s population of these developed countries account for 85% of the global personal income and a like fraction of the annual use of global resources. Yet they continue to hold the ‘Third World’ and India as principal culprits of global warming.

The fact is poverty and unemployment, which continues to be perpetuated by the rich and developed countries, is the biggest contributor to pollution. According to some estimates, more than 25 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic and millions of Indians have plunged back into poverty, setting back half a decade of gains. India rightly wants to enhance the manufacturing sector’s contribution to 25% of its GDP in the coming decade and create 100 million jobs. It is in this context that one should view the propaganda of the West which uses global warming as the pretext to prevent India from fast-tracking its growth agenda.

This is not to say that industry should be oblivious to the perils of global warming. We definitely need to embrace technologies that are less resource-intensive. The Indian steel industry offers a classical case study as to how technology can be leveraged to achieve sustainable growth, generate employment and produce green steel by being committed to a circular economy.

Iron and steel industries in India are covered under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) as well as Environment Protection Rules and Regulations enacted and published by the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF&CC) and monitored by Central & State Pollution Control Boards. The Ministry of Steel (MOS ) has in fact laid down the roadmap till 2030 to minimise its carbon footprint. To remain well below 1.5 degrees Centigrade temperature rise compared to pre-industrial levels, the world has to halve its carbon emissions by 2030.

JSW Steel, India’s premier steel making behemoth, has in fact made a commitment to reduce its emissions beyond what the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for Indian steel industry.

By 2030, this steel behemoth is committed to reduce its Specific Energy Consumption by 15%, the Green Gas Emissions by 41%, its Water Consumption by 33% and its Dust Emissions by a whooping 70%.

Mr. Sajjan Jindal states, “We are committed to a circular economy and… we have resolved to improve net carbon emission intensity well beyond India’s Nationally Determined Contributions as per the Paris Accord commitments, with an aim of achieving more than 41% reduction by 2030 (from the base year of 2005).”

JSW has invested considerably in best-in-class technologies to reduce material consumption, improve coke rate and optimize the use of alternative fuels. The 20 MTPA pipe conveyor at Vijayanagar transports iron ore directly from its captive mines, reducing emissions exponentially. The carbon sink created through three million plantations for systematic afforestation is part of its biodiversity-preservation objectives.

It’s demonstrable and verifiable leadership in this critical area has led to JSW being declared Sustainability Champion by the World Steel Association (WSA) and has been rated A-, one of the highest in global steel.

While JSW has taken a leadership role, other major Indian steel players are also upping the ante when it comes to reducing its carbon emissions. As India tries to propel itself to greater economic heights, employment generation and rapid industrialization will have to take centrestage. The per-capita steel consumption in India is around 63 tonnes and this is slated to cross 150 tonnes by 2030. This will require a huge surge in production along with investing in state-of-art technologies to reduce its carbon footprint. The other alternative of importing steel will not only be financially crippling but will also have a detrimental effect on growth rates and our Atma Nirbhar push. India’s five trillion dollar economy push and ambitious job creation programme should not be diluted by the Western agenda of unfairly targeting us in the guise of global warming.