India’s per capita emissions to stay below world average: studies
02 Sep 2009
According to studies India's per-capita global emissions is set to remain below global average which will give the country a stronger leverage at the Copenhagen climate talks due in December. Citing the results of the studies environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that even two decades hence India's per-capita greenhouse gas emissions will be well below global average of 25 years earlier.
The country's per-capita emissions are estimated to be equivalent of 2.77 tons to 5 tons of carbon dioxide in 2031 the minister as compared with 4.22 tons in 2005 the minister said in a statement. According to government estimates India's current per-capita emissions stand at 1.2 tons.
India is opposed to legally binding caps on its carbon emissions as part of a global agreement on climate change that would replace the Kyoto Protocol due to expire in 2012. India presently accounts for 4 per cent of the global carbon emissions with one of the lowest carbon emissions per capita in the world. The US accounts for 20 per cent of global carbon emissions.
Meanwhile even as the deadlock continues between the developed and developing nations on greenhouse gas emissions cuts, India has proposed three thrust areas forestry for mitigating climate change effects, Clean Development Mechanism and technology cooperation at Copenhagen.
In areas of forestry India and China favour the ''REDD Plus'' mechanism which incentivises conservation of forests by developing nations through greater development funds. Also included in the mechanism are adoption of sustainable environment management programmes and plantation of new trees, according to Ramesh who was speaking at a two-day India Carbon Market Conclage 2009 in New Delhi.
Meanwhile in UK politicians from across the spectrum have welcomed an environment campaign called the 10:10 campaign. The Conservative party has pledged their frontbench would sign up and the Liberal Democrats have put a motion to cuts its emissions by 10 per cent.
