India rejects greenhouse gas limits

INDIA: India said it would reject proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions at a summit meeting of the world’s leading economies next month because stricter limits would slow its booming economy.

“Legally mandated measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are likely to have significant adverse impacts on GDP growth of developing countries, including India,” environment ministry secretary Pradipto Ghosh said.

“This in turn will have serious implications for our poverty alleviation programmes,” he said. “Legal mandates on greenhouse gas mitigation in any form will impact our growth, and this is not the path we wish to pursue.”

Summit host Germany has called for a statement limiting worldwide temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) and cuts to global greenhouse emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

But chances of a consensus seem remote with the United States rejecting the idea of mandatory emissions targets, as well as language calling for G8 nations to raise energy efficiency.

Global debate on climate change has acquired a new urgency as the Kyoto Protocol, the only global agreement that sets specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expires at the end of 2012.

Talks on renewing the deal are under way, with the next round scheduled to take place in Indonesia in December.

New Delhi, Tuesday, AFP.