India to slow carbon emissions growth by 20-25 pct

NEW DELHI. December 4. KAZINFORM India pledged Thursday to significantly slow the growth of its carbon emissions over the next decade, becoming the last major emitting country to announce a climate change policy before a UN summit opens next week; Kazinform refers to China Daily.
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The plan is less aggressive than those announced by the US and China in the last two weeks, and one critic called it nothing more than a reiteration of the status quo.

But the pledges gave momentum to negotiations on emission limits, which had been snagged for months while three of the largest emitting countries waited for each other to make the first move.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Parliament that India plans to reduce the ratio of pollution to production by 20 to 25 percent compared with 2005 levels, but it would not accept a legally binding emissions reduction target.

The emissions measure, known as "carbon intensity," means India's emissions will keep rising but at a quarter of the pace they would otherwise have done.

"We must be flexible without compromising basic national interests," Ramesh said, acknowledging that emissions will continue to grow as India moves toward a more energy efficient economy.

One critic dismissed India's plan as insignificant. It merely justifies the low standard set by the US, said Sunita Narain of the New Delhi-based Center for Science and the Environment.

"This reiteration of India's existing domestic commitment so close to Copenhagen is being done to provide a cop-out for the Americans ... and will endorse the weak, meaningless commitment of the Americans," she told The Associated Press.

Ramesh said that India's carbon intensity had dropped by 17.6 percent from 1990 to 2005, and that government experts agreed further reduction was possible.

Per capita emissions are low in India -- the government says the average Indian produces one ton of carbon dioxide a year, compared with about 20 tons per person in the US Its 1.2 billion-strong population is what makes it one of the world's leading emitters of greenhouse gases; Kazinform cites China Daily.

See www.chinadaily.com.cn for full version

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