Save the world with yoga

India has finally published its plan to save the climate: The world’s third-biggest polluter – after China and the USA – has submitted its “intended nationally determined contribution” (INDC) to the UNFCCC. By the way, it was due months ago. But anyhow, what I find interesting is that India wants to reduce carbon emissions with the help of yoga.

Katja Dombrowski

12.10.2015

I am sure that this idea puts a smile on the faces of many readers outside Asia. In the west, yoga is mainly known as some kind of gymnastics, at best involving some breathing exercises and meditation. Few people know however what India writes in its INDC document: “The ancient Indian practice of Yoga […] is a system that is aimed at balancing contentment and worldly desires, that helps pursue a path of moderation and a sustainable lifestyle.” Above all, yoga is a spiritual practice, and the physical exercises serve this practice. (When a famous yoga guru was once asked by a student why he has to torture himself with all those difficult positions, he replied that the goal is being able to sit for hours in the lotus posture for meditation without being distracted by any uncomfortable feeling in the body.)

A serious practitioner of yoga can hardly be imagined as a greedy, consumerist and unmindful person who doesn’t care about mother earth and the creatures dwelling on it. Thus I agree with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi who believes that the world would be a much better place if everybody practiced yoga. (Modi himself might not be a shining example though, but that is a different story.)

Of course one has to read the hard facts too. India commits to reducing its emission intensity, that is its emissions relatively to its economic growth, to energy efficiency and to renewable energy. It plans to have 40 percent of its installed electric capacity powered by non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030. But it does not commit to an absolute reduction in carbon emissions, and it also doesn’t set a date for its targeted emission peak. This is less than many experts had hoped for. It is clear that India will continue to burn more and more coal and that its emissions will continue to rise.

In the end, it is not enough to quote Gandhi (as the INDC document does several times), to invoke India’s great tradition of harmonious coexistence between man and nature (which they do in the opening sentence) and to refer to the centuries-old philosophy of yoga. In the end, a difference will only be made through effective action on the ground. And I don’t mind at all if the Indians get there with the help of yoga.

India´s INDC:
http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/India/1/INDIA%20INDC%20TO%20UNFCCC.pdf