India Rejects Biding Cuts In GHG Emissions - Reuters

[hatrack]

SYDNEY - Asia's third-largest economy said on Thursday it will not agree to binding cuts to greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol, but hopes boosting its nuclear industry will save its cities from choking air pollution.

Speaking after the first meeting of a climate change group created by six of the world's top polluters, Indian Environment Minister A. Raja told Reuters on Thursday that India would accept help to reduce emissions but would not be forced into cuts. India has signed the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges about 40 developed countries to cut their emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. But, along with China, is exempt from the mandatory cuts because it is a developing nation.

India is also part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate that met in Sydney, along with the United States, Australia, South Korea, Japan and China, which hopes to tackle climate change without hindering economic growth.

"Neither the Kyoto Protocol nor this partnership can stipulate anything upon the government of India to reduce emissions," Raja told Reuters in an interview from his hotel suite overlooking the Opera House in Sydney.

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