Debate on ‘India Has an Obligation to Combat Climate Change’

‘India Has an Obligation to Combat Climate Change’

Date – Feb 3, 2015

The Department of Economics of The IIS University organized a debate competition on the topic "India has an Obligation to Combat Climate Change" on February 3, 2015. The judges of the event were Ms. Deepika Kaurani, Department of Foreign Trade Management and Dr. Shelja K. Juneja, Department of Environmental Sciences. Students participated in good numbers.

The debate started with associating India to various titles such as the 3rd largest emitter of toxic gases, 2nd most populous country, member of G20, etc. Participants in favour of the topic highlighted the reasons why combating climate change was an obligation for India. Since everybody lives on one planet it is the duty of every nation, whether developed or developing, to curb the pollution and save the world from the brunt of toxic emissions. Students cited statistics to support their point which says India alone accounts to 7.75% of total world pollution. Under the list of countries emitting per capita carbon dioxide India ranks on 38th which was earlier on 31st level.

But the opponents also made their points very cogent that India has many important issues at its behest other than climatic problems. Unemployment, poverty and social inequality are above all which need to be addressed first. Climate change can be curbed by the developed countries and India's already limited financial resources should be utilised for improving the life of its people.

Not only the participants but also the audience participated actively in the debate. After the competition got over, students from the audience stood up with their own perspectives. The environment soon turned into a real and lively debate. The event concluded with the announcement of the winners of the competition. The 1st position was bagged by Anukriti Gupta of Semester IV. The 2nd position was a tie between Meenakshi Narayanan of Semester VI and Palak Agarwal of Semester IV.

The judges also enlightened the students with their own inputs about the topic. In the end, a token of thanks was given by Dr. Deepa Pareek, Head of the Department of Economics.