In the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, few of the vehicles plying the roads, the brick kilns, cement factories or the lime quarries meet the standards set by the state’s pollution control board. Each pumps black carbon, formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, and other harmful pollutants, freely into the air. Produced through diesel combustion and biomass burning, black carbon is now being recognised as a major contributor to climate change by scientists, after many years during which it was overlooked.

Black carbon – the overlooked threat

The good news is that black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only a short time, in contrast to carbon dioxide, which has an atmospheric lifetime of more than a century. The bad news: it appears to be capable of causing rapid environmental damage in the short time it is present.

In regions like the Himalayas, black carbon is seen as especially risky by some scientists as it makes the snow melt faster. “When black carbon deposits on ice it darkens it, thereby making it absorb sunlight which enhances the melting of snow,” says Veerabhadran Ramanathan of Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California.

Veerabhadran Ramanthan’s recent studies suggest black carbon is responsible for around 18 per cent of global warming, compared with 40 per cent for carbon dioxide. 

“Given its tendency to cause instant damage, black carbon emissions in Kashmir obviously pose an additional danger to Kashmir’s glaciers,” adds the Indian glaciologist Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain who works with the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi. Professor Hasnain is currently studying Kolhai glacier in Kashmir which he believes is retreating rapidly.

Car ownership is booming

Pollution from vehicles is emerging as the primary source of black carbon. The regional transport officer, Anees Ahmad, says the number of vehicles registered in his office on 31 March 2009 stood at 2.45 million, including 68,940 commercial vehicles. Due to a boom in Indian-manufactured small cars and commercial mini buses this represents a huge rise on the 25,253 vehicles registered in 1986 and 80,143 in 1997.
 
Apart from private vehicles, thousands of diesel-fuelled vehicles, used by the Indian army and paramilitary forces, navigate the roads of Kashmir. Official estimates put the number of troops in the state at around half a million, though human rights activists and some political organisations say the real figure is over 700,000.

In October India’s minister for non-conventional energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, revealed that these diesel-fuelled military vehicles are using 1.2 billion litres of diesel each year just in Kashmir’s Ladakh region alone, though he said efforts were being made to reduce that to 40 million litres.

Illegal fuel openly sold

Kashmir’s pollution control board says that more than 55 per cent of Kashmir’s vehicles do not conform to pollution norms.

“Adulterated fuel – kerosene mixed with diesel to make more profit – worsens the problem,” says the pollution control board director, Mian Javid. This illegal fuel is openly sold along the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

“The smoke density of more than 70 per cent of diesel-fuelled vehicles does not conform to the existing permissible level,” said Javid. “Surprisingly, one of our surveys has revealed that more than 80 per cent of these vehicles possess pollution-control certificates.”

The certificates are issued by various outlets across Kashmir which are registered with the General Transport Department. The certificates from these outlets are usually unreliable since the issuers, according to officials of other government departments, accept money for providing bogus certificates.  

Vehicles are not the only culprits though; brick kilns are also among the major emitters of black carbon. A recent survey by the pollution control board found 374 kilns, of which it had authorised only 59. Similarly, there are 204 stone crushers, only 83 of which are authorised by the board. Javid says the board is taking measures to curb this trend.

Closure orders ignored

“We have already ordered the closure of 39 brick kilns and 29 stone crushers,” he says. But the people of the affected areas say such orders never lead to action. “Orders for closing the brick kilns were issued in the past as well, but were observed only in the breach,” said Iqbal Ahmad of Aripathan village in Kashmir’s Budgam district where most of the brick kilns are.

Conservative estimates say that if an average kiln burns 15 tons of fuel a year, meaning together they all burn arond 5,000 tons of fuel. What concerns the campaigners most is the fact that the lowest quality of coal is being burnt in these kilns, as well as rubber tyres to save costs.
 
Yet another source of black carbon is the use of conventional fuels in households. People use firewood and cow-dung cakes for cooking and heating during the winter. “We have around five million people living in the villages. If an average household burns eight kilograms of firewood per day, it would work up to millions of tons of firewood,” observes S A R Shah, a scientist with the Department of Environment and Remote Sensing.
 
With electricity in short supply, influential families and all commercial enterprises use diesel generators for their energy needs. “Even in an environmentally sensitive area like Ladakh 116 hotels and 318 guest houses use diesel generators, since electricity is only nominal here,” says Mehboob Ali, tourism officer in Leh-Ladakh. Ladakh is home to a number of glaciers and many endangered animals.

Little government action

There hasn’t been any effective government response to the growing atmospheric pollution, and Kashmir’s environment minister wasn’t sure whether any environment assessment report had been prepared by his ministry so far. “I will have to confirm it, I don’t know,” he said.

Kashmir may currently lack the technology to reduce black carbon emissions, but scientists say that reduction using existing technology is a relatively cheap and easy way to significantly restrict global warming. One example of this would involve switching over to fuels such as compressed natural gas rather than diesel and petrol. Making public transport a more comfortable alternative to private cars is another. Terming the reduction of black carbon, a ‘low-hanging fruit,’ scientists say it should be plucked immediately to buy time when the world is driving fast toward a cliff in terms of climate change.

It would mean a contribution on her part to the livelihood of the family, all of whom depended on the waste trade.

Sorting through the waste later became a full-time profession for her, as it had been for her parents, even after her marriage.

Today she sorts waste no more. But she remains a sympathizer with hundreds of thousands of waste-pickers who find their livelihoods threatened as the practice of burning waste in incinerators picks up across India.

“I don’t love picking up waste from other people’s houses. Nor do I want my fellow community members to do it. But it has been a traditional profession for us marginalized people”, she says.

She is now a member of an alliance of 3,000 women in Mumbai who have gathered together to spread awareness among the women of their community that they should send their children to school.

“The lack of education in our community is a major problem for us. We are not able to send our children to school because of lack of resources. Families of waste-pickers hardly manage to live a hand-to-mouth existence”, Suchita says.

She has a success story to share while spreading awareness among the women of her community. She has toiled hard in order to educate her son and has realized that dream.

“I worked hard day and night to make sure that my son gets education. I felt quite satisfied when he completed his graduation and he is now working as a salesman in a furniture company”, she explains.

“We visit the waste-pickers’ families and tell the women that they should send their kids to school. We particularly urge them not ignore their daughters’ education”, she said. They have now started getting a response from the families.

Suchita  was one of a five-member team of waste-pickers from India whose trip to the UN Copenhagen climate change conference in December 2009 was sponsored by an Indian non-governmental organization, Stree Mukhti Sangatana (Women’s Liberation Organisation).

It wanted them to have the chance to hammer home their point in the Danish capital as world leaders held negotiations  on tackling climate change.  

They held demonstrations asking for recognition of the waste-pickers’ work in mitigating climate change. “Let us recycle… give us recognition”, they urged.

“We demand that the waste should not be burnt, but should be segregated for recycling and making compost”, Suchita said.

Waste-pickers in India collect all kinds of waste from homes like plastic, aluminium, glass, rubber and paper, making recycling possible and earning a livelihood in the process.

“As environmental awareness has grown, waste-pickers are no longer looked down on as in the past”, said Jyoti Mhapsekar of Stree Mukti Sanghatana.

“But what is more concerning is the government’s response to these people who have been scavenging waste from the streets for decades.”

She said the incentives provided by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol encourage governments to build incinerators.

“This not only causes waste-pickers to lose their jobs but also increases greenhouse gas emissions, exactly the opposite of the intended effect of the CDM”, she said.

Jyoti says that recycling and turning the garbage into compost is one of the cheapest, quickest and easiest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – and to provide a livelihood to poor people.

“Recycling has major economic benefits as it employs at least 10 million people in developing countries. There are more than 100,000 waste-pickers in the Indian cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Pune alone”, she said, and their jobs should be recognized by government.

A good percentage of Danish cyclists brave harsh winters and prefer to pedal to work

“The taste for cycling is inherent in the citizens of Copenhagen”, says Thomas Holst, a Dane who is explaining why cycling has become so popular here.

Klaus Bondman, a technical and environmental administration official of the city, puts it more pithily: “Cycling is as natural for Copenhageners as brushing their teeth.”

“Cycling reduces CO2 emissions and provides more space to enjoy urban life. This is why, in recent years, we have extensively invested in improving conditions for present and future cyclists,” he says.

Today Copenhagen’s residents own 560,000 bicycles – for a population of just over half a million. No wonder 150,000 people in the city cycle to work or school every morning.

This encourages climate campaigners desperate to see  a drastic reduction of emissions. They hope the world will emulate the Danes.

“I think if we become conscious of the implications of our own actions and get used to environment friendliness by using a bicycle when it is possible, using public transport rather than getting into a car for short drives, and taking other measures at our own level, the world’s leaders will have no choice but to listen to us,” says Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Owning a car is no big deal for the average person, especially in a developed country like Denmark which ranks seventh in the world table for per capita income.

In the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks, some visitors were so impressed that they argued for the “Copenhagenising” of the rest of the world’s cities.

Copenhagen has an ordered network of bicycle lanes throughout the city with a whole lot of well-disciplined people cycling around.   But Lise Pedersen, political director at the Danish Cyclists’ Federation, says cyclists still do not feel satisfied with the lanes, which are wide enough for four or five bicycles only.  “An increased number of cargo bikes has resulted in increased congestion on cycle tracks,” he says.

The city planners have drawn up a plan for bicycle safety in traffic and “are constantly improving” dangerous intersections and road junctions.

“In 2008, our survey revealed that 37 per cent of the people of Copenhagen chose to pedal all the way. This was a slight improvement over 2006 when the figure was 36 per cent,” says Pedersen. The figure has risen by another two to three per cent this year.

Cycling in the city reportedly leave fewer chances for traffic jams. “I can’t claim jams are not occurring at all, but I can certainly say that congestion on our cycle tracks is also increasing with the ever-increasing popularity of cycling,” he says.

Car-parking spaces are few and far between compared with those for bicycles. Bicycles are not plonked down all over the city at random, to the annoyance of pedestrians. “In 2006 there were 29, 000 public cycle parking spaces in the city and this rose by 5,000 in 2008, an 18 per cent increase,” says Pedersen.

He is working with the railways to improve combining cycling with train transport. “The bicycle-train combination has high potential as an alternative to private cars”, he says.

He adds: “We have set three targets for 2015: at least 50 per cent of people in Copenhagen city will go to their places of work or school by bike; the number of cyclists killed and seriously injured will be reduced by more than 50 per cent compared with 2005 [the number in 2008 was 121]; and 80 percent of cyclists will feel safe (51 per cent did so in 2008).”

Rebecca (left) and Maxlin during an event at CoP 15

Rebecca Asigau, a young woman from Papua New Guinea, doesn’t think that countries keen to expand their economies at the cost of the “extinction” of small island nations deserve to be called superpowers.

“They want their economies, not the survival of people, to be at the forefront,” she says.

Rebecca, who is the only youth representative from her country at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, added: “They are sticking to their stands when the world needs their cooperation and patronage.”

Asked what she would do if she was the leader of a major world economy, she replied: “I would take a serious look at the humanitarian aspect of climate change and think about how I would feel if my own country was exposed to a major risk.”

Rebecca is keen to learn as much as about climate change as she can, and take her newfound knowledge back home.

“People don’t know much about climate change in my country – how it is happening and the activities that cause it. So it would be good for me to bring back some lessons from here”,  she said.

Maxlin Sese, a youth representative from the Solomon Islands, does not believe the climate conference could be an exercise in futility.

“If such a huge number of people have come together, what are they here for? They have to do some serious business and reach a consensus”, she said.

Maxlin says food security and people’s livelihoods are threatened by climate change in her country. Referring to this year’s moniker for Copenhagen, “Hopenhagen”, she said: “We think we have come to Hopenhagen, and would not want to leave here without hope of survival.”

She remains optimistic about the outcome of the conference and says: “I think the world will not let us down.”

Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are both members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group of 42 small island and low-lying coastal nations, which are all vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Representatives of the smaller countries of the region, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, were speaking during a side event at the UN Climate Change Convention conference in Copenhagen. The event was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD),  a regional knowledge development centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.

“The most vulnerable countries in the world are in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, which is home to 1.3 billion people. We are facing increasing threats of floods, droughts and forest fires, and our agriculture-based economy is at huge risk”, said Nepal’s prime minister, Madhav Kumar.

Nepal stressed that the poorer countries of the region are suffering even though they have made no contribution to global warming.

“Nepal is responsible for only 0.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is at the receiving end of global warming”,  the prime minister said. The director general of ICIMOD,  Andreas Schild, pointed out that the HKH region contains 100 square kilometres of ice and 33,000 cubic metres of ice mass, which act as a source of water for one-third of the world’s population.

Bhutan’s agriculture minister, Pema Gyamtsho, said each country of the region faced a potentional threat from climate change. Its impact had already started taking a toll, the minister said. “Some glaciers in our country have retreated  by 200 metres. We have over 2,000 glacial lakes, of which 25 are potentially dangerous,” he said.

He stressed the need to take integrated adaptation measures in South Asia, where every country faced threats which could cause damage near at hand. “All of us need to have a common strategy. And I think we need to seal a deal at the regional level”, he said.

Mostapha Zaher, director general of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), said that while his country had suffered from conflict for the last 30 years, “now it faces the challenge of climate change”. He said it was a huge challenge for a poor country like Afghanistan.

“It needs high technology and huge funds to cope with such a challenge. I think the developed countries should have no problem in providing this to the least developed countries,” Zaher said.

“Afghanistan’s economy is largely based on agriculture and 80 per cent of our population depend on farming for their livelihoods. But continuous droughts are posing a serious threat to the agro-economy and food security.”

The representative from Pakistan, Dr Arshad Muhammad Khan, is also the director of the Global Change Impact Studies Centre,  a think tank set up to help national planners and decision makers in areas such as climate, water, energy, food, agriculture, health, ecology and new technologies.

He said the “most vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change is Pakistan.”  Khan said Pakistan’s entire river system depended on the Himalayan glaciers. “Pakistan’s lifeline is the Indus river system which gets 75 to 80 per cent of its water from the glaciers. But with these glaciers facing threats, our irrigation network, the world’s largest, is also exposed to danger,” he said.

“Norway’s announcement that it will increase its emissions reduction target to 40% by 2020 is the type of political will needed to move the climate talks forward to a strong deal in Copenhagen,” said Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace. This target is based on 1990 emission levels.

Though Norway has yet to announce the mechanisms it will use to achieve this target, the announcement comes at a crucial time and is likely to increase pressure on other industrialized nations.

“Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has shown the leadership we need from the rest of the developed world,” Kaiser added. “He has laid down a challenge to his international peers and they should take it up. Already we have seen Japan massively increase their target.”

According to Kaiser, “It’s a clear signal to President Obama to step up from the 4% target. Norway’s actions are also a blueprint for the European Union as it finalizes its own policies in the coming weeks.”

Ambassador Lumumba Di-Aping of Sudan told the Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) that the announcement was a most welcome step. “Norway has always demonstrated its leadership and it repeated the same thing this time as well,” Apang said.

The director of the South Centre, Martin Khor, said that Norway has “always taken the lead” in tackling global issues. “Norway’s decision will play a good role to awaken the conscience of the European Union… Norway is able to take such a great step since it exists independently of the European Union,” he said.

Norway’s announcement comes at a time when the Bangkok climate change talks appear to be deadlocked on many fronts. They are one of the last rounds of talks before the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, just 59 days away.