The Indo-us Nuclear Deal : Basic Facts
India and the United States signed a landmark deal in October 2008,
which allows India access to US civil nuclear fuel and technology.
What is it that makes this deal so significant? How does India stand
to gain from it? Here are some answers to these questions:
What is the Indo-U.S. Civilian Nuclear Deal?
This is a deal between India and the United States for civil nuclear
cooperation. Under this agreement, the United States can sell civilian
nuclear fuel and technology to India. India in turn, has to separate
its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil
nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Association
(IAEA) inspection. The accord took three years to be finalized, during
which it went through a series of complex stages that included
amendment of U.S. domestic law, formulation of a civil-military
nuclear separation plan in India, an India-IAEA safeguards
(inspections) agreement and the grant of an exemption for India by the
Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG).
What are the Hyde Act and the 123 Agreement?
Under Section 123 of its Atomic Energy Act, the United States can
enter into civilian nuclear trade only with those countries that have
signed the NPT and CTBT. India has signed neither treaty. Further,
after its first nuclear test in 1974, the United States had placed a
ban on the supply of nuclear fuel and technology to India. In order to
sign the present deal, the section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act needed
to be amended. The Hyde Act 2006, a domestic Act of the United States,
was accordingly brought in to amend this Section and provide a legal
framework for a 123 Agreement with India. With this agreement India
becomes the only non-NPT/CTBT signatory to have signed the 123
Agreement with the United States.
Who are the Nuclear Suppliers Group?
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a 45 nation body concerned with
reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling trade in nuclear fuel
and technology. Their policies had so far kept India out of bounds of
international nuclear trade as it has not signed the NPT and CTBT.
Some countries in the NSG had misgivings about giving India the
unprecedented waiver of carrying on international civil nuclear trade
even without signing the NPT, but the approval finally came through
keeping in view India’s strong non-proliferation records, and its
voluntary declaration of “no first use” of nuclear weapons.
What does India get from the Agreement?
Indo-US Civil nuclear deal has paved the way for the growth of the
nuclear power sector in India, which has so far been plagued by
shortages of nuclear fuel. India has limited reserves of Uranium,
which is the crucial fuel needed at the present stage of our nuclear
power program.
India’s nuclear power generation is only about 1800 Mw against an
installed capacity of 4120 Mw. With the present agreement, which is
valid for 40 years and extend able by another 10 years, India hopes to
address this fuel shortage. Under this agreement the US is committed
to ensure uninterrupted fuel supply to safeguard Indian reactors and
create strategic fuel reserves for them, and also work with other NSG
countries to ensure supply of nuclear fuel to India. The ambit of the
deal includes research, development, design, construction, operation,
maintenance and use of nuclear reactors, reactor experiments and
decommissioning. To ensure smoothness, the agreement provides for
elaborate consultations between the two parties in the event of either
side wanting to terminate the deal before its normal time
Further, the agreement also lays down the clause of “non-interference”
in India’s strategic program. Thus, the Indian nuclear power program
stands to get a much needed push without any threat to its strategic
program.
And what does India give?
As part of the bargain India has agreed for separation of its nuclear
facilities, placing the civilian facilities under IAEA safeguards in
perpetuity. The safeguard is aimed at ensuring that the nuclear
material or technology brought in for civilian purposes is not
diverted for military use. Out of its 22 operating/under construction
nuclear facilities, India will place 14 under IAEA safeguard.
Reducing GHG Emissions: The Kyoto Mechanisms
The Kyoto Protocol has put in place three flexibility mechanisms to
reduce emission of Green House Gases. Although the Protocol places
maximum responsibility of reducing emissions on the developed
countries by committing them to specific emission targets, the three
mechanisms are based on the premise that reduction of emissions in any
part of the globe will have the same desired effect on the atmosphere,
and also that some developed countries might find it easier and more
cost effective to support emissions reductions in other developed or
developing countries rather than at home. These mechanisms thus
provide flexibility to the Annexure I countries, helping them to meet
their emission reduction obligations. Let us take a look at what these
mechanisms are.
What are the three flexibility mechanisms put in place of the Kyoto
Protocol for reducing GHG emission?
The three mechanisms are joint implementation. Emissions Trading and
Clean Development
What is Joint Implementation?
Through the Joint Implementation, any Annex I country can invest in
emission reduction projects (referred to as joint Implementation
Project) in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing
emissions domestically.
Two early examples are change from a wet to a dry process at a Ukraine
cement works, reducing energy consumption by 53 percent by 2008-2012;
and rehabilitation of a Bulgarian hydropower project, with a 267,000
ton reduction of C02 equivalent during 2008-2012.
What is Clean Development Mechanism?
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows-’ developed country with
an emission reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the
Kyoto Protocol to implement an emission reduction project in
developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission
reductions in their own countries. In exchange for the amount of
reduction In emission thus achieved, the investing gets carbon credits
which it can offset against its Kyoto targets. The developing country
gains a Step towards sustainable development.
To get a CDM project registered and implemented, the investing
country’ has to first take approval from the designated national
authority in the host country, establish “Additionally”, define
baselines and get the project validated by a third party agency,
called a Designated Operational Entity (DOE). The Executive Body of
CDM registers the project and issues credits, called Certified
Emission Reductions (CERs), or carbon credits, where each unit is
equivalent to the reduction of one metric tonne of C02 or its
equivalent. There are more than 4200 CDM projects in the pipeline as
on 14.3.2010. The expected CERs till the end of2012 is 2,900,000,000
What is “Additionality” in a CDM project ?
The feature of “additionality” is a crucial element of a CDM project
it means that the industrialized country that is seeking to establish
the CDM project in the developing country and earns carbon credits
from it has to establish that the planned carbon reductions would not
have occurred on its own, in the absence of the CDM project. They have
to establish a baseline of the project. Which is the emission level
that would have been there in the absence of the project. The
difference between this baseline level and the (lower) emission level
achieved as a result of the project is the carbon credit due to the
investing country
What are some of the concerns regarding CDM?
The risk of “false Credits” is a cause for concern with regard to CDM
projects. If a project does not actually offer an additionally and the
reduction in emission would have happened anyway Even without the
project.
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