Indian Government Slams UN Recommendation Of 20% GHG Cut By 2020 - AFP

[hatrack]

India on Tuesday slammed a recommendation in a new report from the UN Development Programme that urges developing countries cut carbon emissions by 20 percent over three decades starting in 2020.

The report released in Brazil on Tuesday on fighting climate change said global warming could have apocalyptic consequences for the world's poor and also said richer countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.

"This looks egalitarian, but it isn't," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's national policy making body, the Planning Commission, in New Delhi, pointing out in terms of per capita emissions the US emits 20 tonnes, the European Union 10 to 15 tonnes and India one.

Ahluwalia added the report "does not address the key issues of equality and equity."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/071127143257.l3l7weu8.html

OK, then - surf's up in Orissa, it would seem . . .

[progressive_realist]

1. A moot point

India imports two-thirds of its oil and natural gas. The net export crisis is going to drive the prices of both of these through the roof within the next five, never mind the next forty, years. India's relatively low GDP means that it will be one of the first large countries priced out of global energy markets. India has meager coal reserves and so can't substitute coal for oil/gas like China and the USA can.

Ergo, India's greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 are going to be a small fraction of what they produce today, no matter what treaties they do or don't sign.

So much for the "Planning Commission". :think: