THE CHANGING ROLE OF ENGINEERS IN THE EMERGING GEO-STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT

LT COL K C MONNAPPA

MA in Social Work (DU) Sustainable Development (CEU-Hungary)

Lead Auditor ISO 140001 Env Std “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. We are faced now with the fact

that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding

conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late…We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and

rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are

written the pathetic words: Too late.”

Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Where do we go from here: chaos or community’ Introduction 1. The immense changes in the social, ecological and economic environments caused by technology and globalization have compelled organizations worldwide to make overwhelming changes in their purpose, strategies and structures in order to adapt, survive and succeed. Like a living organism that learns to adapt itself to its new environment, organizations today must learn, and learn fast, in order to adapt to rapid environmental changes or they simply will vanish. Likewise, the Institution of Engineers will also need to learn continually, to meet the demands of the 21st century. It can be safely assumed that the engineering today has reached an apex but to scale greater heights would necessitate its evolution into a “learning, lean and intelligent profession.” Apart from the need to adapt and survive, the engineering as a profession has perhaps reached a level of organizational maturity, where it can now begin to address the higher levels of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs: self respect and self actualization. Environment – A Future Security Threat 2. Few areas of public policy are as contentious as issues surrounding management of our environment and natural resources. A new generation of environmental issues is now upon us, defined by greater political, economic, social, and even cultural complexity. The Human Development Report 2007/2008

comes at a time when climate change—long on the international agenda—is starting to receive the very highest attention that it merits. The recent findings of the IPCC sounded a clarion call; they have unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system and linked it directly to human activity. The effects of these changes are already grave, and they are growing. This year’s Report is a powerful reminder of all that is at stake: climate change threatens a ‘twin catastrophe’, with early setbacks in human development for the world’s poor being succeeded by longer term dangers for all of humanity. 3. Damage to the ecosystem is veritably a threat multiplier. This has the potential to affect the Nation’s security calculus and its impact would resound at the global, regional and domestic level. Unlike other unconventional challenges, damage to the ecosystem is caused not by hostile forces but by production and consumption patterns. Climate change is the defining human development issue of our generation. All development is ultimately about expanding human potential and enlarging human freedom. It is about people developing the capabilities that empower them to make choices and to lead lives that they value. Climate change threatens to erode human freedoms and limit choice. It calls into question the Enlightenment principle that human progress will make the future look better than the past. 4. The desired new global bargain would call upon vulnerable states on the frontline, like India, to shoulder more responsibility where this issue is concerned. Not only will its effects be global, damage to the ecosystem is likely to make for e.g. weather patterns more unpredictable in higher latitudes. With the upper reaches of the Arctic already warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, climate change (a direct result of the damage caused to the ecosystem) could wreak havoc on agriculture, public health and ecosystems in colder lands, besides helping breed unmanageable viruses. At a time of greater international divisiveness on core challenges — from disarmament and terrorism to food crisis — the responsible Institutions within India can ill afford rancour over crisis due to damage being caused to the ecosystem, which carries the seeds of exacerbating existing security calculus, without necessarily creating a new category of threats. 5. Some of the major threats to human security come from the deterioration of the physical environment. Air and water pollution, depletion of underground water tables, deforestation, desertification, loss of biodiversity, and above all climate change, are having profound effects on many societies today, and, as each damage to the environment accumulates and interacts with all the other damages, the welfare of future generations is endangered as a result. While it is easy to exaggerate or underestimate the likely impact due to destruction caused to the ecosystem, three broad strategic effects can be visualized:-

(a) Human security will be the main casualty as damage to the ecosystem delivers a major blow to vulnerable economic sectors. Disparities would intensify. The specter of resource conflicts, failed states,

large-scale migrations, growing extremism, and higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events helps underscore the human security costs.

(b) Higher frequency of extreme weather events and a rise in ocean levels are likely to spur greater interstate and intrastate migration — especially, the poor and vulnerable — from delta and coastal regions to the hinterland. Such an influx of outsiders may provoke a backlash that strains internal and regional security. India, for example, could face a huge refugee influx from the world’s seventh most populous country, Bangladesh, which is already losing land to saltwater incursion.

(c) Damage to the ecosystem is likely to intensify interstate and intrastate competition over natural resources. A new form of warfare over water, for example, could unfold, with Asia as the hub, given China’s control over Tibet — the source of all of Asia’s major rivers except the Ganges. Accelerated melting of glaciers and mountain snows would affect river-water flows. (Though higher average temperatures are likely to bring more rainfall in the tropics.)

National Action Plan on Climate Change

6. Sensing the heightened security threat wrought in by the effects of environmental degradation, India released the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) on 30 June 2008. The principles guiding the NAPCC are as follows:-

(a) Protecting the poor and vulnerable sections of society through an inclusive and sustainable development strategy, sensitive to climate change.

(b) Achieving national growth objectives through a qualitative change in direction that enhances ecological sustainability, leading to further mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

(c) Devising efficient and cost-effective strategies for end use Demand Side Management.

(d) Deploying appropriate technologies for both adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions extensively as well as at an accelerated pace.

(e) Engineering new and innovative forms of market, regulatory and voluntary mechanisms to promote sustainable development.

(f) Effecting implementation of programmes through unique linkages, including with civil society and local government institutions and through public private-partnership.

(g) Welcoming international cooperation for research, development, sharing and transfer of technologies enabled by additional funding and a global IPR regime that enables technology transfer to developing countries under the UNFCCC.

7. The document postulates that, in dealing with the challenge of climate change, both the public and private sector must act on several fronts in a focused manner simultaneously. The National Action Plan hinges on the development and use of new technologies. The focus will be on promoting understanding of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, energy efficiency and natural resource conservation. There are Eight National Missions which form the core of the National Action Plan, representing multi-pronged, long-term and integrated strategies for achieving key goals in the context of climate change. They are as follows:-

(a) National Solar Mission (b) National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (c) National Mission on Sustainable Habitat (d) National Water Mission (e) National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (f) National Mission for a "Green India" (g) National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (h) National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate

ROLE OF THE ENGINEERS 8. Having established the need for limiting future climate change and for helping the most vulnerable adapt to what is unavoidable, one has to move on and identify the nature of the policies that will help us get the results we seek. Several things can be said at the outset:

(a) First, non-marginal changes are needed, given the path the world is on. We need big changes and ambitious new policies.

(b) Second, there will be significant short term costs. We have to invest in limiting climate change. There will be large net benefits over time, but at the beginning, like with every investment, we must be willing to incur the costs. This will be a challenge for democratic governance: political systems will have to agree to pay the early costs to reap the long term gains.

(c) Leadership will require looking beyond electoral cycles.

9. The institute of engineers to this extent would have a pivotal role to play in shaping up the environment with energy efficient buildings, lesser polluting vehicles, new methods for harnessing power and the list could go on endlessly. In short, the nation’s security environment would partly rest on the initiatives and the innovations the Indian engineers would be able to come up with in the near future. 10. The vision of the Engineers should be to make India’s economic development energy efficient. Over a period of time, they must pioneer a graduated shift from economic activity based on fossil fuels to one based on non-fossil fuels and from reliance on non-renewable and depleting sources of energy to renewable sources of energy. In this strategy, the sun should occupy the center stage, as it should, being literally the original source of all energy. The Institute of Engineers should pool all scientific, technical and managerial talents, with sufficient financial resources, to develop solar energy as a source of abundant energy to power our economy and to transform the lives of our people. The success in this endeavour will change the face of India. It would also enable India to help change the destinies of people around the world. In pursuing this and other ambitious goals, the greatest assets in the wisdom, creativity and enterprise of the engineers would be crucial. CONCLUSION 11. The climate change that the world is already locked into has the potential to result in large-scale human development setbacks, first slowing, then stalling and reversing progress in poverty reduction, nutrition, health, education and other areas. Developing countries and the world’s poor cannot avert these setbacks by acting alone—nor should they have to. The Institute of Engineers can lead the way.