Why Indias Ujh dam & 2nd Sutlej Beas link projects key to Indus waters have hit roadblock (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- India’s plans to build a multipurpose project on the Ujh river in Jammu & Kashmir for irrigation and hydro power and the second Sutlej-Beas link project in Punjab, so as to better utiliseIndus river waters currently flowing to Pakistan, have hit a roadblock.
- While the Finance Ministry’s Public Investment Board (PIB) has not cleared the strategic Ujh project on the ground that it is not financially viable, the Sutlej-Beas link project is facing land acquisition issues in Punjab as well as delay in finalisation of the location of its barrage,
Details:
- The dam at Ujh (a tributary of Ravi), the second Sutlej-Beas link project, along with a third ongoing dam project in Shahpur Kandi in Punjab, are all on the eastern rivers of the Indus basin and are key to India’s aim of utilising the water it is guaranteed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan.
- Of the three, work is at an advanced stage on the Rs 2,793 crore Shahpur Kandi dam project. Expected to be complete by the end of 2023, the dam will help check the unutilised water that goes to Pakistan through Madhopur headworks downstream.
Indus Waters Treaty:
- The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, outlines how India and Pakistan will utilise the six rivers of the shared Indus River system.
- While the western rivers of the system; Indus, Jhelum and Chenabfall in Pakistan’s share, the three eastern ones; Ravi, Beas and Sutlej are to be used by India.
- Under the treaty, India gets unrestricted use of over approximately 33 million acre-feet (MAF) water from the three eastern rivers, while Pakistan gets over 135 MAF from the three western ones.
Hydro projects by India on Indus System:
- Currently, India utilises around 94-95 per cent of its share of water in the eastern rivers through a network of dams, including the Bhakra on Sutlej, Ranjit Sagar on Ravi, and Pong and Pandoh on Beas.
- The three projects; Shahpur Kandi, Ujh and the second Sutlej-Beas link will help India utilise the remaining 5 per cent of water that currently flows into Pakistan.
- India has several ongoing as well as proposed projects on the three western rivers as well. Currently, it is locked in a dispute with Pakistan over two of its hydroelectric projects on the western rivers Kishanganga and Ratle.
- The World Bank has appointed a neutral expert on the request of India and set up a Court of Arbitration on the request of Pakistan to resolve the matter.
Hurdles in the way:
- In October 2022 that the PIB rejected the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Rs 6,000-crore proposal to build the Ujh multipurpose project that comprises a dam and hydroelectric plant, holding it financially unviable.
- The PIB appraises public funded projects worth more than Rs 500 crore, before the ministry piloting the project moves the cabinet to get it approved.
- The second Sutlej-Beas link project, on the other hand, is getting delayed because of land acquisition issues in Punjab as well as the finalisation of the exact location of the barrage.
Green think tank CEEW suggests EU & Korea-like ‘emissions trade’ for India’s carbon market launch
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- With the government greenlighting the establishment of a carbon market, India should create a carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS)similar to what the European Union or South Korea have set up, according to the Delhi-based think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
- The CEEW recommended a cap-and-trade mechanism for greenhouse gas emissions that can be made applicable to various sectors in order to drive down emissions in a cost-effective manner.
Background:
- The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), which is in charge of regulating this market, is likely to come up with a framework for a domestic carbon market by the end of next month.
- The Energy (Conservation) Amendment Bill, passed in Parliament in 2022, paved the way for the establishment of a domestic carbon market in India, which seeks to incentivise emissions reductions among carbon-intensive industries.
Details:
- According to the CEEW, India’s own carbon market could regulate 50 per cent of its carbon dioxide emissions, while the rest could be mitigated “through dedicated and complementary sectoral policies”.
- While ETS in countries like EU and Korea set absolute targets on emissions reductions, in India, the emissions targets will not be absolute, but in terms of emissions intensity”. Emissions intensity refers to the volume of carbon per unit of output.
- India has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, as well as reduce its carbon emissions intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) by 45 per cent by 2030. Carbon markets are viewed as an essential tool by policymakers to achieve these climate goals.
ETS inEuropean Union:
- The Energy (Conservation) Amendment Bill allows the central government or any other authorised agency to grant “carbon credit certificates” or carbon allowances to a registered entity, opening the doors to establishing a carbon market.
- A carbon market puts a price on carbon and other greenhouse gases emitted in order to discourage fossil fuel use.
- In the EU, for example, the carbon market has materialised as a cap-and-trade scheme, wherein a regulatory body issues carbon allowances, each of which is equal to one tonne of carbon or its equivalent.
- These allowances, which are limited in number, must cover a registered entity’s annual emissions, and can be bought and sold as and when needed. A registered entity that does not have adequate permits may be penalised.
- According to the CEEW, it’s important that such a scheme be tailored to the Indian context, where ETS is still a novel concept.
CDM:
- India’s experience with carbon markets in the international arena has been more project-based, under what’s called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
- The CDM was set up by the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement in which certain developed countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- In the CDM system, carbon credits were generated by activities or projects that reduce carbon emissions, such as afforestation and renewable energy production. These credits are then bought by emitting entities as a way to “offset” their emissions.
Way Forward:
- For a domestic ETS scheme, however, the CEEW recommends applying one emissions cap across sectors like thermal power, cement, aluminum, paper and pulp, iron and steel, and textile industries.
- A single cap across sectors enables the inherent cost-efficiency of an ETS to be fully utilised by allowing emissions reductions to take place where they are cheapest across all covered sectors.
Access and benefit-sharing: Paper proposes 8 principles on use of indigenous medicine
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- A group of practitioners, activists, scholars, lawyers and human rights defenders has come together and proposed a set of ethical guidelines that they say can guide Western psychedelic research and practice on traditional indigenous medicines.
- The set of eight ethical principles; each beginning with the letter ‘R’, can address increasing concerns among many indigenous nations regarding the cultural appropriation of their traditional medicines.
Background:
- The proposed guidelines come even as the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes is on the rise. There are now more than 30 million estimated psychedelic users in the United States (US) alone.
- There were 367 registered clinical studies on psychedelics as of 2022. An increasing number of cities and states in the US have also legalised their use.
- Indigenous healing medicines like Ayahuasca are rising in popularity. Yet, the economic profits hardly accrue to the communities and regions from where these medicines originate.
Indigenous rights:
- There are frameworks that mention indigenous rights to the use and development of their traditional medicines and related practices. These include the Article 8 (j), Article 16 and Annex 1 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as well as the Articles 7 and 12 of the CBD’s Nagoya protocol on Access and benefit-sharing (ABS).
- However, countries like the US where research on psychedelics using traditional indigenous medicine is being carried out, are not signatories to the CBD and therefore also not party to the Nagoya protocol on ABS.
- On December 19, 2022, delegates at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The framework has 23 targets that the world needs to achieve by 2030.
The 8 Rs:
- The eight ethical principles to address indigenous concerns: Reverence, Respect, Responsibility, Relevance, Regulation, Reparation, Restoration, and Reconciliation.
These were categorised within four overarching categories:
- Acknowledgement
- Knowledge-Translation and Education
- Intellectual Property
- Belonging
Impacts of Western psychedelic research:
- Western psychedelic research had turned the ‘kincentric’ approaches (treating all relationships, including medicines, as kin) of indigenous medicine systems to anthropocentric approaches (human-centric).
- For instance, westerners travelled thousands of kilometres (increasing their carbon footprint) to take part in indigenous healing ceremonies (like ayahuasca). This failed to promote environmental care.
- Western psychedelic research and psychedelic tourism is also leading to excessive extraction of ingredients used in traditional medicines. Indigenous traditions are not properly acknowledged in medicines, rituals, ceremonial use, they noted under ‘respect’.
- No ‘responsibility’ was being taken while making use of traditional benefits, benefitting from it or the harms that were being caused due to it.
Way Forward:
- They called for ‘regulation’. Indigenous Peoples should give their free, prior and informed consent on the use of their medicines and practices. Benefits from any use must be shared with such communities.
- Institutions and organisations using psychedelics for research and/or therapies must provide ‘reparation’ in the form of promotion and safeguarding of indigenous self-determination.
