Yasmeen Mohiuddin Yahoo News 3 Dec 09;
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India pledged on Thursday to cut its carbon footprint in the next decade by reducing the intensity of its emissions, in a long-awaited move ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks.
Addressing parliament, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said India needed to show leadership to its people and the world and even invoked the country's environment-minded independence leader Mahatma Gandhi to bolster his arguments.
Reiterating the country's rejection of binding emissions targets or a peak year by which its emissions would have to fall, he committed instead to reducing the carbon intensity of the national economy.
"We will on our own cut emissions intensity by 20 to 25 percent if we get support from the international community," the minister told lawmakers.
Ramesh will head to Copenhagen next week and stay for the bulk of negotiations, his office said.
He explained that the cut in carbon intensity meant the creation of each unit of gross domestic product would produce 20-25 percent less greenhouse gas emissions compared to a 2005 baseline.
The target will be voluntary and non-binding, but the statement marks a major shift for India, which had refused to quantify its commitment to cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
"At Copenhagen, if we have a successful agreement, if we have an equitable agreement, if we are satisfied with this agreement, we are prepared to do even more," he told lawmakers.
Saleemul Huq, senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), called the announcement a "welcome sign that the Indians are prepared to take action".
"Larger developing countries are now coming forward with domestic actions but they should also be prepared to take further actions and those costs need to be reimbursed," Huq told AFP from London.
India was seen as under pressure to make a gesture after the world's top two polluters, China and the United States, put numbers on the table last month.
India's carbon intensity is lower than China's, the biggest emitter, which last month declared it would cut the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels.
A reduction in carbon intensity means India's and China's carbon emissions would continue to rise in the long term but at a slower pace, leading critics to label such plans "smokescreens".
Huq disagreed, saying: "Cutting carbon intensity is a good first step. Ultimately what matters is total emissions and all countries have to plan for a post fossil-fuel economy."
The United States, the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will also head to Copenhagen with an offer to cut US emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and larger amounts in the future.
The December 7-18 talks in the Danish capital are aimed at forging a new pact to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and their impact after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Ramesh said India's carbon intensity had declined by 17.6 percent between 1990 and 2005, and further cuts could be achieved through a host of measures, including stricter vehicle emissions targets, improved building standards and "clean coal" technology in power stations.
Coal is the source for a majority of India's electricity generation.
"India... owes a responsability not to the world, but to itself to take climate change seriously," Ramesh said, adding that the country had particular reason to be worried about global warming.
"Climate change is of great significance to our country and ever since I became minister on May 29 I have been trying to spread this single message that the most vulnerable country in the world to climate change is India," he said.
One of the reasons, he explained, is India's reliance on an annual monsoon for water, which was the weakest in nearly four decades this year.
India to slow greenhouse growth in step to U.N. deal
Krittivas Mukherjee, Reuters 3 Dec 09;
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India set a goal on Thursday for slowing the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, the last major economy to offer a climate target four days before the start of U.N. talks on combating global warming.
The government said it was willing to rein in its "carbon intensity" -- the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per unit of economic output -- by between 20 and 25 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.
"India can't be like a frog in the well, India has to show leadership to its own people -- we need to show action," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told parliament, laying out India's position ahead of the December 7-18 summit in Denmark.
Such a goal will let India's emissions keep rising. Ramesh said India, the fourth biggest greenhouse gas emitter, would not set a peak year for its emissions, or accept absolute cuts.
The unilateral announcement contrasted with a harder line on Wednesday when diplomats said India, China, Brazil and South Africa opposed the setting of goals advocated by the Danish hosts, including a halving of world emissions by 2050.
The big emerging economies have often insisted that rich nations have caused global warming by spewing out greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution, and want to see deep cuts by these rich nations before joining the effort.
"This means that all of the world's biggest emitters have reacted to the deadline in Copenhagen. It is very good news that India has brought numbers to the table," said Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's Environment Minister who will preside at the talks.
India's goal will let emissions rise, albeit at a slower rate than gross domestic product growth (GDP).
"Under this intensity target...the absolute level of Indian carbon emissions might still rise by around 90-95 percent between 2005 and 2020, according to our GDP growth model estimates," PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a statement.
Still, it called the target "very encouraging."
RICH-POOR DIVIDE
Fault lines between rich and poor about sharing out the burden of combating global warming -- projected to bring more floods, droughts, wildfires and heatwaves -- are likely to dominate Copenhagen, where about 100 world leaders will gather on the final two days.
In London, the climate consultancy Ecofys said global greenhouse gas emissions would almost double from 1990 levels by 2040 with current emissions promises.
And rich nations are far from united in their approach.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Thursday he would not rule out calling an early election to end a political deadlock over climate change policy, after parliament rejected for a second time his policy on cutting carbon emissions.
In Brussels, a European Commission official said the European Union wanted more from China.
China last week said it would aim to cut its carbon intensity goal by 40-45 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels. Some analysts say that could still mean a doubling of emissions.
"There's an expectation they could go further," the EU official said.
Summit hosts Denmark reiterated that it was now too late to agree a full, legally binding treaty in Copenhagen. Hedegaard said nations would have to set a deadline for completing work "as soon as possible in 2010."
"I think that right now the biggest obstacle for Copenhagen will be finance," she told Reuters. Developed nations have yet to put cash on the table to help fund a deal.
In Italy, environmentalists accused Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of doing too little to avert climate change, and put up an ice statue of him in the ancient Roman Forum. It is timed to melt away on the day the conference opens.
(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux around the world; writing by Alister Doyle, Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
India to rein in emissions, but at minimal cost: analysts
Yasmeen Mohiuddin Yahoo News 4 Dec 09;
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India, like China, has committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its economy which will allow its emissions to grow in the long-run and avoid huge costs for its industry or consumers, analysts say.
The country had been under pressure to make a gesture before climate talks in Copenhagen, which start next week, and it has promised to slow the growth of its emissions in the future but under no circumstances reduce them.
It's a "welcome sign that the Indians are prepared to take action," said Saleemul Huq, senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
"Larger developing countries are now coming forward with domestic actions but they should also be prepared to take further actions and those costs need to be reimbursed," Huq told AFP from London.
Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced Thursday a voluntary and non-binding commitment to reduce India's carbon intensity by 20 to 25 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.
This means that generating a dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) will result in 20-25 less carbon emissions by 2020, but in return India expects financial compensation from rich countries to help with the cost.
India's economy is already on the path of greater carbon efficiency, having achieved a 17.6 percent decline in carbon intensity between 1990 and 2005.
Ramesh stressed repeatedly that there was no question of India adopting an overall emissions target, or accepting a peak year by which time its emissions would have to fall.
This would impose far greater costs on the national economy and would dampen the expansion the government says it needs to drag millions out of poverty in the vast and chaotic country.
"India can do more, but it will cost more. That should be financed by the international community," said Girish Sant from the non-government research body Prayas Energy Group.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) hailed the plan, calling it "completely doable" and noting "there will be more output with each unit of emission thereby benefiting the economy a great deal."
"Indian industry is well-positioned to turn the challenge into an opportunity," CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement.
Ramesh explained that the reductions in carbon intensity would be achieved through new legislation imposing stricter emissions standards for vehicles and improved energy efficiency for buildings.
The country's stretched and mostly coal-fired power generation network would make greater use of "clean" technologies, he said.
Ankur Ganguly of Greenpeace India called India's reduction plan "conservative," but noted that most countries had gone with similarly "easy" figures to play it safe at Copenhagen.
India is "playing it safe but who isn't?" he said. "The US has been ultraconservative."
Negotiations for a new global climate treaty in Copenhagen to replace or extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 are deadlocked with rich and poor nations at loggerheads.
Developing countries are refusing emissions targets and are demanding financial aid from their rich counterparts to help them cope with the effects of climate change.
India's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are expected to nearly triple in the next two decades from about 1.2 tonnes per person per year to 2.1 tonnes in 2020 and 3.5 tonnes in 2030, according to a recent government-backed report.
That is still below the global average of 4.2 tonnes per person.
But India's massive 1.1-billion population puts the country among the world's leading greenhouse gas emitters.
India's carbon intensity is lower than China's, the biggest emitter, which last month declared it would cut the rate of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels.
The Indian Express newspaper said India's negotiating hand would be strengthened by the numbers, but criticised the amount of time it took to make an announcement.
"It allowed others to seize the initiative and to let the focus for some considerable time be on how India was the sole major participant who was unwilling to quantify," the paper said.
But India still had enough "wiggle room" and Thursday's announcement should be seen as an "attempt to ensure that Copenhagen starts without any finger pointing."
