India’s Pollution Problem Is Real But Mustn’t Be Politicized For Pushing “Green Imperialism”

Considering how fast India’s economy is growing, which is the direct result of ensuring reliable commodity imports from Russia in full defiance of the West, it therefore naturally follows that this South Asian state will help set the new rules and standards of the emerging Multipolar World Order. In a desperate attempt to avert that seemingly inevitable scenario that the Golden Billion knows will further reduce its own influence in this respect, they’re resorting to “green imperialism” against India.

CNN headlined a front page piece on Sunday about how “A trash heap 62 meters high shows the scale of India’s climate challenge”, which superficially aimed to raise awareness of that country’s pollution problem but arguably functioned as a form of “green imperialism”. This concept refers to politicizing environmental issues as a means for advancing hegemonic ends, which in this case relates to that top Western Mainstream Media (MSM) outlet pressuring India to curtail its development on that pretext.

The article would have been innocuous had it solely reported on this problem, but this objectively existing issue was weaponized upon the outlet using it as the basis for framing India’s principled stance of refusing to unilaterally concede on its developmental interests in a negative light. The subtext is that this policy is responsible for worsening the lives of innocent people, who could have had an altogether different fate had Delhi submitted to the West’s demands to accelerate its green transition.

The hard truth is that the West itself doesn’t truly believe in the urgency of prioritizing this selfsame transition as proven by the EU reopening coal plants across the bloc as part of its radical diversification from its prior Russian energy dependence. Furthermore, “Germany’s Double Standards On South African Coal Expose Its ‘Green Imperialism’” after it became obvious that Berlin was coercing Pretoria into deindustrializing on faux “green” pretexts all while exporting eight times more coal to the EU.

This same “green imperialism” is being waged against India on a similar pretext with the intent of tarnishing its reputation in the West after it refused to distance itself from Russia simultaneously with hoping to pressure that country into curtailing its development out of “guilt”. The OECD’s report late last month proved that its economy is growing at twice the pace of China’s, which is accelerating India’s rise as a globally significant Great Power that’s in turn revolutionizing International Relations.

It's beyond the scope of this analysis to discuss the global systemic transition in detail, but intrepid readers can review three of my latest pieces here, here, and here to learn more about this development. The significance of that trend in the context of the present article is that India’s central role in the emerging Multipolar World Order reduced the influence of the US-led West’s Golden Billion exactly as External Affairs Minister Jaishankar declared over the weekend is already a fait accompli.

That de facto New Cold War bloc is fiercely competing with the jointly BRICS- & SCO-led Global South of which India is the voice over the direction of the global systemic transition, with the former hoping that the ultimate outcome retains the trappings of unipolarity while the latter hopes to gradually reform International Relations so that they’re more democratic, equal, and just. To that end, the Golden Billion is pushing “green imperialism” as a Hybrid War weapon for impeding the Global South’s development.

The double standard at play whereby the Global South is coerced by the Golden Billion into voluntarily curtailing its development by prioritizing the green transition while the latter literally reopens coal plants across Europe is aimed at retarding the first’s growth so as to give the second a greater edge. The end goal is to further widen the development gap between them since lessening it will result in the Global South having more influence over the direction of the global systemic transition.

Considering how fast India’s economy is growing, which is the direct result of ensuring reliable commodity imports from Russia in full defiance of the West, it therefore naturally follows that this South Asian state will help set the new rules and standards of the emerging Multipolar World Order. In a desperate attempt to avert that seemingly inevitable scenario that the Golden Billion knows will further reduce its own influence in this respect, they’re resorting to “green imperialism” against India.

To be clear, India’s pollution problem is real, but it cannot be sustainably resolved through radical measures such as those connected to the Golden Billion’s green transition demands. Everything must proceed smoothly in order to prevent any unintended disruptions that could reverse its 1.4 billion people’s gradually improving living standards, hence Delhi’s cautious approach and its interest in buying natural gas from Moscow for facilitating its planned years-long transition via that cleaner resource.  

If the West was sincere about its own publicly stated commitments to the green transition, then its countries wouldn’t have unilaterally stopped importing Russia’s comparatively cleaner natural gas and thus forced themselves to rely on much dirtier coal for the indefinite future. Nor, for that matter, would they be so upset that India is interested in purchasing LNG from Russia since prospective deals would facilitate its own planned green transition by making it sustainable and thus more responsible.  

With a view to the future, it appears inevitable that “green imperialism” will play a more prominent role in the Golden Billion’s Hybrid War against the Global South, especially its rising Indian leader. High-sounding rhetoric full of supposedly well-intended demands masks the Machiavellian reality that the green transition is being weaponized as a means for curtailing the rapid development of rising multipolar Great Powers in order to prevent them from shaping the rules of the emerging world order.