Sunita Narain: Where is the green party?

Every major political party has a green agenda, but a green party and a green revolution aren’t the same thing.

There are always two questions that are asked as elections approach. When will India get a green party? And are environmental issues important in our elections? The answer to both questions is interlinked and relates to the nature of the Indian electoral system as well as the nature of India’s environmental concerns.

The fact is that our parliamentary democracy borrows its structure from the Westminster system of first-past-the-post, which makes it difficult for any pan-India issue-based party to succeed. It is no surprise then that the green party exists in Germany and even comes to power within a coalition but that doesn’t happen in the UK. This is when, during elections for the European Parliament some years ago, the UK green party got a substantial percentage of votes, even higher than the German greens.

But there is another issue that concerns the green parties of Europe and beyond. The fact also is that all mainstream parties have incorporated the green agenda as theirs. All parties, for instance, accept the need to protect the environment, to mitigate emissions necessary for climate change and even agree to invest in low-carbon technologies like renewables and hybrid vehicles. The question is whether these governments can bite the bullet to make the structural changes required in their economies to meet the imperatives of climate change. This is the green Waterloo.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the conservative government of Germany’s Angela Merkel took on the green party agenda so totally that it almost marginalised the green party. But now, as the government has to take some tough decisions about acting on climate change on the one hand, and moving fast on the economy and job-losses, on the other, its true colours are showing. The Merkel government is backtracking — from seeking to get emission allowances for big industry to giving the automobile industry benefits in terms of subsidies to car-owners to buy new vehicles, or even desperately lobbying for time for this industry to tighten fuel efficiency standards.

It is the same in the case of Australia. The major political party came to power saying that it was against the environmental-hostile policies of its opponent, the John Howard government. But now that the new party is in power, its actions on environment and climate change are even more pathetic and miserable than those of its predecessor. It is tough to walk the talk when it comes to reinventing the economy for real change. It will be no surprise (even if it is disappointing) if Barack Obama finds that he also has little room to be the change he has so persuasively promised us all.

In India, the issue is similar, yet different. The fact is that green issues, including climate change, have made it to all major party manifestos. The Congress, the BJP and the CPI(M) all promise to protect the environment, check river pollution and invest in renewable energy systems for a low-carbon economy.

The question is whether these ‘pure’ green issues are the core environmental issues that need to be addressed, and whether these can be addressed without changing or addressing the key issues of growth and economic change? This has to do with the nature of India’s environmental concern. The fact is that in our country, the bulk of the people live on the environment — the land, the water, the forests are the basis for their survival. The core environmental issue is to improve the productivity of these natural resources in a sustainable manner. And to ensure that these benefits reach the local people and help in building a local economy and livelihood. It is about investing in the resources of the poor. It is about the governance — the political framework — in which this investment will benefit people and build green futures.

We need to care about the pollution of our rivers — because people depend on them for drinking and survival. We need to revise our strategy for ‘development’ because these projects take away land or forests which are critical for livelihood security. We need to invest in decentralised water or energy systems so that we can minimise the damage to the local environment and provide everyone access to resources, not to just a few.

But this is where political party manifestos get frayed on the green-edge. It is easy to talk about green issues — particularly those that the middle-classes of India can understand as ‘green’. But it is difficult to join the dots — to how the country will green its economy itself, so that it can provide growth for all, without compromising on the present and the future generations. This is why it is easy, perhaps, to have a ‘green party’ but not a ‘green revolution’.