The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : GROWING AND YET GREEN

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Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

GROWING AND YET GREEN

IF MANY THEORISTS are convinced that economic growth is impossible without making compromises on environmental policy, those who hold a counterview can draw support from the recently released Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) of nations. Without claiming to be an absolute or unquestionably accurate measure of national performance, the ESI postulates that good economic performance must lead to a better environment. It rates governments on how judicious they are in using their natural resources and in protecting citizens from environmental stresses. The 2005 ESI, produced by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, is based on a stronger statistical foundation compared with those in past years and this gives the conclusions greater validity. To environmental activists, the report would appear to be a re-confirmation that India, with an ESI rank of 101 among 146 countries, is in peril of further endangering the environment with its development policies. The Central and State Governments have an opportunity here to respond to the bleak assessment constructively and introduce correctives to policy and practice. Indeed, the aim of the exercise is to enable countries to strengthen their policies using a reliable analytical framework built on a base of 76 data sets and 21 indicators. The data range from air quality and biodiversity protection to effective governance and global stewardship. Finland and Norway score high, way above the United States and several other industrialised nations.

The ESI report effectively widens the debate on India's draft National Environment Policy (NEP) and focuses on the central question of compatibility between economic growth and environmental sustainability. By emphasising the importance of open debate in policymaking and producing a less than impressive score card on air pollution, biodiversity conservation, water quality, and water quantity, the study has placed the onus on the proponents of the NEP to establish that their far-reaching proposals are backed by equally precise documentation. There has been considerable opposition from various quarters to the NEP's `soft' approach to threats to biodiversity in the name of development. The patent anxiety to speed up the grant of permission to exploit non-renewable natural resources also worries many environmentalists. Considering the irreversible impact of many policy decisions, the mediocre ESI rating secured by India (the national score is even below the average for countries with comparable income levels) should lead to a review of all the controversial processes contained in the draft policy, notably those relating to environmental impact assessment, public hearings, criminal liability of violators, and grant of permissions within protected areas.

India scores high in global stewardship as a partner of the international community. In several other spheres, though, it falls disturbingly short of desirable benchmarks: measures relating to environmental systems, social and institutional capacity, human vulnerability, and ecological stresses are doing badly. Few will disagree that policy initiatives in critical areas fall woefully short of what is needed; the most significant shortfalls pertain to pollution control, water quality and equity, waste management, and eco-efficiency. The exploitation of resources by those with the means to do so has resulted in an anomalous situation where the less influential are deprived of their immediate as well as future entitlements. State Governments have generally failed to respond with alacrity to the challenges posed by greenhouse gas emissions, unplanned urbanisation, and waste generation in the cities. They tend to act, as does the Central Government, only when judicial reprimands and ultimata leave them with little choice. The ESI ratings now offer another opportunity to heed the evidence in progressive spirit and adopt correctives to a range of policies affecting the environment.

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