We need to develop differently, says CSE chief Narain

Mumbai: Speaking at the second Darryl D’Monte memorial lecture on Saturday, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Sunita Narain reminisced about the 1980s, when D’Monte and CSE founder Anil Agarwal were discussing if and how a balance could be struck between development and the environment.

“The jury is still out on the answer,” she remarked before an enraptured full house at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh auditorium, where she was speaking on ‘Climate Change in an increasingly unequal and polarised world: The future agenda for action’. The first edition of the Darryl D’Monte memorial lecture was held in 2023, with environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev as the speaker.

Narain said scientists had given a target of 1.5-degree Celsius rise in temperatures from the industrial age, beyond which the effects could be catastrophic. “So, we have a limited amount of carbon emissions we can expend. And unfortunately, 30% of the world’s population has exhausted 70% of the available carbon emissions. The rest of the world, including India, still needs to develop. But we need to develop differently,” she said. Narain reminded the audience that though there were no easy solutions to dealing with the forces of development, a few clear agenda points for action stood out. Ensuring clean air was primary, she said – it was a ‘great equaliser’, as it was impossible for the rich to ignore polluted air the way they ignored polluted rivers like the Yamuna in Delhi or the Mithi in Mumbai.

Another much needed change was required in modes of mobility. Narain remembered the shift CSE engineered in the early 2000s in Delhi, of nearly 1 lakh vehicles from diesel to CNG to reduce emissions. “Compared to that move, the pace at which Mumbai and the rest of the country is adopting electric vehicles is very slow. Either a mandate for an en masse conversion to electric vehicles is needed, or parking charges need to be hiked to discourage the use of private cars,” she said.

But still, the issue of cleaner fuel persisted, she noted. “The amount of coal that industries in Mumbai and around Mumbai use is enormous. Why isn’t the government orchestrating the push to gas, which is cleaner, by reducing costs? The climate crisis we face is too big for incremental changes.”

Switching to practices that were friendlier to the environment was in favour of everyone, Narain reminded the audience. She mentioned waste segregation as an example that could be adopted without government intervention, but audience members interjected her, saying the BMC’s faulty garbage disposal mechanism made segregation at source waste useless.

The lecture was organised in the spirit of continuing conversations on the environment started by Darryl D’Monte and other early environmental journalists, said his wife Zarine D’Monte. “Darryl was ahead of his time by raising concerns of the environment when there were few to represent it. The issues he and others with him raised are still pertinent, and to continue giving them the importance they demand, we’ve begun these memorial lectures,” she said.

The sentiment was reiterated by other speakers including architect PK Das; founder of the NGO Vanashakti, Meenakshi Menon; and founder of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation, Bittu Sahgal. They also recounted their fond memories with D’Monte.