E Road from Rio Environment and Development Policy Issues in Asia

eRoad romRio Editors Prodipto Ghosh is a Senior Fellow at the Tata Energy Research Institute, New Delhi. He has a Ph D in Economics and Policy Analysis from the Carnegie- Mellon University (also M Phil in the same field) and a B Tech in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technol- ogy, Delhi. His professional affiliations include the American Economic Association, and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Washington, DC. He is also an elected Fellow of the Institution of Engineers and Chartered Engineers. He is a member of the Indian Administrative Service since 1969. His research inter- ests include the economic and policy aspects of global environmental issues, macroeconomic modelling, energy policy, and technology policy. Akshay Jaitly is a Research Associate at TERI. He has a Masters degree in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. He has earlier worked for the World Bank, Amnesty International, and the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. He has several research papers to his credit in the fields of energy policy, technology policy, and the global environment. He is also the Associate Editor of the Pacific and Asian Journal of Energy. ISBN 81 -85419-02-7 The Road from Rio Environment and Development Policy Issues in Asia Editors Prodipto Ghosh Akshay Jaitly Tata Energy Research Institute New Delhi Tata Energy Research Institute '. N "S$' atEnergy Research Institute, 1993 ISBN 81 - 85419 - 02 - 7 No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher Published by the Tata Energy Research Institute, 9 Jor Bagh, New Delhi - 110 003 and printed at Printvision 20/47 West Patel Nagar, New Delhi - 110 008 The Road from Rio Contents Forewora vii Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Compact on Sustainable Development Concerns in the Asian Region (October 1992) XIII Recommendations of Working Group I Implications of the Rio agreements and the future path of negotiations on protocols and institutions Recommendations of Working Group H Formulation of national/regional strategies in pursuance of the Rio Agreements including Agenda 21 Recommendations of Working Group III 7 Scope for regional cooperation and capacity building for sustainable development Inaugural session: inaugural address 9 Hon'ble Shri K C Pant Inaugural session: presidential address 13 Justice R S Pathak Valedictory session: valedictory address 15 Hon'ble Shri Manmohan Singh Valedictory session: presidential address 23 Hon'ble ShriKamal Nath An overview of post-Rio political economy Issues 27 Akshay Jaitly The Earth Summitbenchmnark or non-event? 46 C Suriyakumaran Sustainable development and the evolution of 57 International policy and law Mukul Sanwal The implications of Agenda 21an overview 68 Prodipto Ghosh and Ajai Maihotra The Framework Convention on Climate Change 84 Chandrashekhar Dasgupta The Framework Convention on Climate Change: 87 some underlying economic issues Neha Khanna and Anand Prakash UNEP greenhouse gas abatement costing studies 100 Gordon A Mackenzie and Kirsten Halsnaes Energy and environment: Post UNCED 104 Arnuif Grubler China's actions for global enviromñent and development 121 Wei Zhihong Synergetic effects on hydrogen production from surplus 124 hydroenergy for sustainable energy development in Nepal Khilendra N Rana Climate Change: the challenge facing the ES! of LDCs 139 Adilson do Oliveira Perspectives on the Blodiversity Convention 145 Ajai Malhotra and Avani Vaish An analysis of the Biodiversity Convention 152 Amrita N Achanta and Prodipto Ghosh Incremental costs of GHGs abatement programs: 168 a first cut at a definition Prodipto Ghosh arid Neha Khanna Technology transfer in the context of global 180 environmental issues Amrita N Achanta and Prodipto Ghosh Legal liability versus administrative regulation: the problem 193 of institutional design in global environmental policy Prodipto Ghosh and Akshay Jaitly Participants list 214 Foreword The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was a landmark eventfor those who agree with its deliberations and conclusions and those who do not acknowledge it as a significant development for several spheres of human action. Its success or failure, therefore, need not be judged narrowly in terms of success or failure of the Conference itself, but in terms of the processes that it signifies and that it may have set in motion as a result. UNCED, of course, has raised more questions than provided answers, as might have been anticipated. Most of the concerns and questions that have been raised are generally global in nature and others are purely regional or local. But, of course, if the future health of the planet depends on forging effective partnerships, then the identification and articulation of concerns on environment and development should rightly be much wider than those that are relevant to specific sites or countries. The 'Post-UNCED Seminar on Environment and Development Policy Issues in Asia' was designed and organised in Delhi in this very spirit. It was felt that since the future of the planet lies in the success of the partnerships mentioned above, it would be relevant to focus on the Asian region as a whole and assess the implications of UNCED for Asia, both in terms of opportunities and responsibilities. The Asian continent is a unique combination of diverse cultures, economic capabilities and production systems. On the one hand, Asia contains a highly efficient and modern industrial state such as Japan, and on the other, it is home to large numbers of people living in the worst state of poverty and deprivation. Concepts of international cooperation cannot find a more interesting region for application and implementation than Asia. But to bring about cooperation both within the region and in relation to the rest of the world, it was felt that researchers, policymakers and thinkers in the Asian region should meet and analyse the deliberations held at UNCED and the documents that were produced at the Conference. Consequently, the Seminar itself was organised around a set of selected themes on which detailed papers based on adequate indepth analysis were presented and discussed. The Seminar organisers were fortunate to get the views and wisdom of select eminent persons during the Inaugural and Valedictory Sessions, namely, the Hon'ble Shri K C Pant, Chairman, Tenth Finance Commission; Mr R S Pathak, Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India; Hon'ble Dr Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister; and Hon'ble Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of State for Environment and Forests. The former two distinguished persons addressed the Inaugural Session and the latter two, the Valedictory Session, during which the summary of discussions and deliberations in the Seminar were also presented for their consideration. The deliberations of the Seminar were distilled in the form of concise reports by three working Groups, each of which dealt with (i) Implications of the Rio agreements and the future path of negotiations on protocols and institutions; (ii) Formulation of national/regional strategies in pursuance of the Rio agreements including Agenda 21; and (iii) Scope for regional cooperation and capacity building for sustainable development. In addition, the Seminar also saw the finalization and release of a Compact on Sustainable Development Concerns in the Asian Region which has subsequently iteen signed by a select group of distinguished persons in the Asian region, for release to the rest of the world, embodying the spirit in which environment and development actions and decisions will have to be pursued in the future. Vill Given the complexities of the subjects covered by UNCED, papers presented covered Agenda 21, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity and various legal and administrative issues related to global environmental problems and their solutions. The Seminar was perhaps the first event held in Asia to focus on the post-UNCED global scenario and develop an Asian perspective. The following pages contain much useful material which, it is hoped, would add to the growing wealth of literature in an area of some consequence to humanity. It is also hoped that the publication of this volume would also support the larger objectives of fostering cooperation among countries in the field of environment and development, in the absence of which solutions would fall far short of what is essential to preserve the health of this planet and for human civilisation to progress. New Delhi (Ri,.Pa*thauri) April 1993 Preface It is possible that future historians may view the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held at Rio de Janiero in June 1992 as the end of the beginning of a long global swing to sustainable development. In other words, that at Rio the world community finally garnered the political courage to alter the course of growth to avoid potential future catastrophe, though not as yet, to restitute the environmental damage already accomplished. Such a view would strike a balance between the two opposite poles of opinion of observers who are still close to the event: that Rio was an unmitigated disaster, an environmental Dunkirk in which countries collectively made no firm commitment to eschew unsustainable activities and growth paths. Alternatively, that it was a spectacular success, a Normandy beachhead in the war to secure the environment, enabling the world to put

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