Hillary Clinton Pushes Carbon Reduction, Energy Overhaul in India

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19 July 2009 :: staff

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is back on the world stage, making a major visit to India, to discuss strategic issues, energy, diplomacy and counter-terrorism. She used her arrival to warn India not to make the same mistakes the US has made in delaying action to reduce emissions and combat climate change. She suggested “a great country like India” has the resources and ingenuity to avoid falling into the same traps of political inaction.

Clinton’s visit to India is being staged to foster cooperation between the United States and India on a wide range of issues, including but not limited to counter-terrorism, nuclear fuel, emissions reductions. A spreading conflict between the Pakistani government and a rash of Taliban-linked militant and separatist groups has put the US administration in a position to request from India strategic security cooperation in aid of long-time rival Pakistan.

Even as hardliners who lost the recent national elections continue to speak of Pakistan’s threat to Indian security, demanding more aggressive counter-terrorism tactics to confront militants inside Pakistan, the mass migration of millions of internally displaced Pakistanis, the uncertain security outlook for the country’s northwest, and fears of a Taliban foothold in major port and sprawling megacity, Karachi, mean regional cooperation may be more urgent to establish than at any time in recent decades.

Clinton’s focus, however, on climate policy, in her opening remarks upon arriving in India, demonstrates the Obama administration’s intent to put continued pressure on all parties to make serious strides toward viable emissions reduction and energy industry overhaul plans, in anticipation of the Pittsburgh G20 conference in September and the Copenhagen Climate conference in December. Consensus is vital to forging a new climate policy protocol with global reach and application.

She is following up on Pres. Obama’s work to build consensus and promote new ideas for achieving significant carbon emissions reductions, including Australian PM Rudd’s Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. The Obama administration is the first US administration, with backing from top government scientists and military officers, to officially rate climate destabilization a national security threat.

Clinton also sought to illustrate America’s support for India and its shared interest in protecting against terrorist threats to Indian security, as reported by CBS News:

Speaking at a news conference on the poolside patio of the Taj Mahal Palace & Hotel, which was strewn with bodies after terrorists attacked this coastal city last November, she cast India and the United States as allies in the fight against terrorism.

“Yesterday’s bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia, provide a painful reminder that the threat of such violent extremism is still very real. It is global. It is ruthless. It is nihilistic and it must be stopped,” she said.

In a memorial log-book, Sec. Clinton wrote of the strong ties between the United States and India and of the kinship of grief felt when Mumbai was besieged by a gang of violent extremists last year:

Americans share a solidarity with this city and nation. Both our people have experienced the senseless and searing effects of violent extremism. And both can be grateful and proud of the heroism of brave men and women whose courage saved lives and prevented greater harm on 26/11 and 9/11. Now it is up to all nations and people who seek peace and progress to work together. Let us rid the world of hatred and extremism that produces such nihilistic violence.

She sought to reassure Pakistan and India both that the US did not intend to interfere in relations between the two, both nuclear powers who are vital strategic allies for the US, despite being bitter rivals engaged in a persistent cross-border cold war that has three times flared into open conflict. Clinton’s message marks a clear aim to continue the “3d diplomacy” she pushed upon her swearing-in: diplomacy, development, defense.

UPDATE, 19:02 GMT: In a meeting today in a small town outside of New Dehli, where US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was visiting a model energy-efficient home, Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh voiced his nation’s opposition to being subject to legally binding emissions reduction targets.

According to the New York Times:

India served notice on Sunday that it remains opposed to legally binding targets to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, digging in its heels against the United States as the Obama administration begins marshaling support for a new global agreement on climate change.

The pronouncement is not news: both India and China have consistently and vehemently opposed the idea that they should have to cut back on emissions, which they believe are directly tied to their sustaining rapid rates of economic growth. They oppose the caps, because, they argue, other industrial powers were never required to constrain carbon emissions during their periods of initial industrialization.