Scarce public funds are allocated to subsidise renewable electricity.Clearly, the expectation is that China, which Hollow Dismountable Seperation Wall System contributes 28 per cent of global emissions, needs to step up to the plate of international burden-sharing.9 toe. Habitats, offices and homes all impose social costs and must be taxed in proportion to the extent of their footprint. Similar compulsions face most developing countries in South Asia and Africa. Charging more from those who use electricity at peak time is justifiable beyond the financial cost it imposes, to being an affirmation of commitment to going green. This is a good way of allocating public resources.One such mechanism is to monitor the social cost of our energy consumption and to use it for capital allocation. India already has economic incentives in place for this. Without a technological revolution in clean energy, India will consume more energy to grow and to provide welfare enhancing energy services to its citizens.

That is reason enough for higher expectations from it to play the role of a global leader. We should not miss the bus this time.The writer is adviser, Observer Research Foundation. Our global ambitions should be commensurate with our constraints.The key reason the Paris climate agreement is being ratified is that countries have agreed to disagree. We don’t have the democratic space in India, unlike South Korea, to back industrial winners. Transparent subsidies on the viability gap funding template will suit the private sector best to innovate, implement and increase the consumption of renewable energy.Altogether 37 per cent of India’s energy consumption is non-fossil fuel based. Despite the slowdown it is growing at three times the rate of the American economy. Rail freight has been reduced to stem the shift to the more energy-intensive road transport. India’s per capita energy consumption is just 0.

Investment in public transport is being stepped up to substitute high energy-intensity personal vehicles. China is now the world’s second largest economy.Mr Trump’s cavalier approach to climate change can only be explained by his belief that a slowing US economy should not be the one which pays to set the world’s climate right. Setting up clunky publicly-owned entities to research and transfer renewable technology to industry is not the way to go. But not for a while yet. Truculence in its approach to manage global warming can scuttle the efforts of the rest of the world.India formally ratified the Paris climate agreement on Sunday, notwithstanding that last week Donald Trump was trashing global warming as a hoax and efforts to control it as expensive and ineffective.India has traditionally punched above its weight in international affairs.To be sure, domestic compulsions like smog do compel us to clean our energy profile. This is also a good mechanism for making users pay differentially for the energy they use. If this mechanism was adopted for allocating finances, public investment in the railways and in coastal shipping would surely trump investment on road transport.

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