India offers UN annual update on carbon emissions

Delhi follows China's lead on climate change by proposing non-binding annual report on greenhouse gas emissions
Jairam Ramesh and Su Wei attend New York climate week opening ceremonuy
Indian environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, sits alongside Su Wei, director general of China's climate change negotiation team, at the 2009 Climate Week event in New York. Photograph: Ben Hider/Getty Images

India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, has offered to report once a year to the United Nations on how successfully the country is curbing greenhouse gas emissions – another concession to the demands by developed nations ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit talks in December.

With the Kyoto protocol due to expire in 2012, negotiations for a new treaty to fight global warming have foundered amid disagreements over how to share reductions in carbon emissions. Developing nations say their emissions must rise to fuel the economic growth that will alleviate poverty for billions of their citizens. However, developed nations say that without some restrictions on the developing world's emissions, they cannot commit to their own deep cuts.

The new move from India comes in the same week that China took a significant step towards lower emissions by saying it would set a carbon intensity target, the rate at which fossil fuels are used compared with GDP. At the same UN summit, President Obama offered strong rhetoric but little substance as he faces fierce domestic opposition to proposed carbon cuts.

India has been working to overcome its reputation for prickliness after repeatedly refusing to accept the possibility of any binding cuts. Delhi argued that emissions needed to grow in order to provide electricity to 400 million poor people, and pointed out that the average Indian has a carbon footprint one twentieth the size of the average American, and one tenth that of a Briton.

The country has been at the forefront of a campaign to force the developed world to come up with the funding and technology necessary to prevent global warming and adapt to its consequences. In July, Ramesh was involved with a public spat with US secretary of state Hilary Clinton during her trip to Delhi.

India has appeared to become less abrasive in recent weeks towards developed countries, especially the US. Ramesh was previously involved with a public spat with US secretary of state Hilary Clinton in July during a trip to Delhi.

Ramesh, who had been at the UN to hear Obama's stirring address to the general assembly, said: "The US is making small steps [on climate change]. Remember, without the US there will be no international agreement. So there is no point in hectoring or beating up on them like the Europeans seem to be doing."

Ramesh set out the details of the new Indian initiative today, proposing the publication of a "national communication" to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change which would chart the progress of its green action plan. The report would spell out whether India was on track to meet its "domestic targets" on curbing emissions growth without being enforceable under a new treaty.

The minister said India had already announced a number of green goals, without setting any method for monitoring and verifying progress. Targets include increasing the renewable share of energy output to 20% by 2020, and ensuring that 10% of annual greenhouse gas emissions are "sequestered by forests" before 2030.

"An annual communication to the UN will say what we are doing, what the results are, how is it being implemented, the impact," said Ramesh. "We want to be transparent to the international community but domestically accountable to our voters."

A similar communication is already published once every six years and quickly forgotten. Ramesh said that, as India is unilaterally taking action to tackle global warming, an annual public statement would demonstrate "international commitment" on climate change.

He added that Obama's call at the G20 for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies was complicated in India by the dependence of poor families on fossil fuels to heat and light their homes.

"There may be a case for better monitoring of who is enjoying these subsidies because the middle class tends to suck these up," he said. "But in a developing country there will be a place for subsidies for poorer sections of society."

Ramesh also said it was important to be realistic about what was possible in Copenhagen, saying the talks would be "starting point, not the final destination" for climate change negotiations.

"We may have to come back to Copenhagen six months later," he said. "No harm done. I am saying: let's clinch agreement on those issues where there is consensus such as forestry, technological co-operation and finance for the poorest nations. Let's not make these hostage to the idea that unless we have emission cuts we have nothing. Let's instead start moving."

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