India declines to take absolute emission reduction targets India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Amid mounting pressure from the developed countries to take emission reduction target before December's Copenhagen climate change meet, India has stated that while its emission levels would not exceed those of developed countries, it is against any legally binding absolute emission targets. Speaking on the sidelines of the G-20 summit here, Prime Minister's Special Envoy on climate change Shyam Saran said that India would not be able to take absolute emission reduction targets of the kind which developed countries are obliged to take under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Shyam Saran pointed out that India was taking a number of significant mitigation actions. "We have a national action plan, which covers both mitigation as well as adaptation. There are several national missions whose objective would be in fact to mitigate emissions," he said. "If required to do more, India would need more support, both in terms of financial resources as well as technology transfer, as "taking such action will in fact, impact our growth prospects," he added. India along with the other developing countries has submitted a formal proposal in United Nations, which urges the developed countries to cut their emissions up to 40 per cent by 2020. "We are talking about peaking by 2020. So, we have already lost a lot of time, which is the reason why India together with a number of other developing countries has put forward a formal proposal in the negotiations calling for at least 40 per cent reduction in developed countries emissions by 2020 with 1990 as the base," said Saran. Dr. Manmohan Singh has given the commitment that India is determined to keep its per capita emissions lower than those of the developed countries. Meera Shankar, Indian Ambassador to the United States, pointed out that India's emission is about 1.4 tons per capita. If the developed countries cap their emissions at lower levels, India would ensure that it would not cross them. That would be an incentive for the developed countries to cap or the lower the level of their emissions. U.N. talks among 190 nations are scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in December to forge a deal on a climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out at the end of 2012. Progress ahead of Copenhagen has been limited. Industrialised and developing nations are at odds over how to spread out greenhouse gas emission curbs and how much rich nations should pay to help poorer nations cope with the effects of rising temperatures. India has conveyed that it is taking steps to adapt to climate change and reduce planet-warming emissions, but it will not take on any binding targets because it needs to burn energy to lift millions from poverty.