Emissions will grow while tackling poverty, says government

Live Mint , Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Correspondent : Neha Sethi

New Delhi: In a statement that could have a bearing on global climate change negotiations, the government said on Tuesday that India’s net carbon emissions that harm the atmosphere will have to grow in order to tackle poverty in the country. “We have to reduce carbon emissions but I haven’t done it. India and other developing countries have to grow...we need to tackle poverty,” climate change minister Prakash Javadekar said. In fact, India’s net emissions of harmful gases will grow and it will need a window till 2030, 2035 or 2040, before it can start cutting them, said Javadekar, who is also minister for environment and forests. He was speaking at an event to mark “world day to combat desertification”. The statement shows the new government’s stand on climate change will be in line with that of the previous administration. India and other developing countries such as Brazil, South Africa and China have said they will not agree to any binding emission cuts, but have committed to bring down emissions intensity, which calculates emissions as a proportion of economic growth, to 25% by 2020. Developing countries argue climate change has primarily been caused by rich nations through industrial activity and that it is they who must lead by example by cutting their carbon emissions first. Javadekar’s note comes at a time when US President Barack Obama has announced a plan to cut power-plant emissions. Obama is seeking state-by-state limitations on carbon-dioxide emissions to limit the effects of man-made global warming. Power plants are the largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions in the US, and Obama’s plan is to cut this emission by 30% by 2030 from 2005 levels. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked world leaders to bring their action plans to a climate summit in New York in September, to which heads of state and government are being invited. The summit is in preparation for a landmark bid by the UN to limit emissions by both industrialized and developing nations for the first time, with an agreement slated for 2015 involving 190 countries. Sunita Narain, director general at Delhi-based not-for-profit Centre for Science and Environment, said the Indian position on its right to development is well known. “We also need to show we are serious on low carbon growth. But it is important to make it clear that developed countries have to do a lot more.” Narain said the Obama climate plan was low on ambition. Meanwhile, a senior government official who requested anonymity said a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bonn, Germany, which ended on Monday, made progress in agreeing on a green climate fund (GCF), which will transfer money from the developed to the developing world to help them adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. UNFCCC is a global non-binding convention and 195 nations are parties to it. Its aim is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. “They have called a meeting of possible contributors on 30 June and 1 July in Oslo. This is the first meeting. The funds should start flowing soon,” the official added. Javadekar said it is important to rejuvenate degraded land to ensure poverty is eradicated, adding, “challenge of desertification can be overcome.” Susheel Kumar, additional secretary at the ministry of environment, said a cabinet note had been prepared on how to tackle desertification and it required co-ordination between ministries of environment, agriculture and water resources. When the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance came to power, it added climate change to the subjects tackled by the ministry of environment in a move experts speculated signalled its seriousness about tackling climate change.

 
SOURCE : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/pNzf9n8aIOyoCJQbMq0p8M/Emissions-will-grow-while-tackling-povertysays-govt.html
 


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