Centre to hold meet on climate

Main objective is to firm up a list of state-level action plans

Even as the Planning Commission is considering the proposal, the Centre is pushing for an NDC meeting within the next two months to firm up a list of state-level action plans.

The state-level climate change action plans – on which the prime minister has already issued a directive – can give an extra tool to Indian negotiators fighting for a better emission cap treaty at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December.
Notwithstanding sporadic border conflicts, New Delhi and Beijing will work together at Copenhagen to oppose western moves to consider carbon emission as a non-tariff barrier in international trade.

“We are also cooperating to project forestry’s potential as carbon sink to the world,” Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said here.
Releasing a report on green house gas emission, he said India’s per capita emission of GHG will continue to be lower than the developed world till 2030-31.
India’s per capita carbon dioxide emission currently stands at 1.2 tonnes.
But four computer models show that even in 2031, India’s per capita GHG emissions would stay under 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – lower than the global per capita emission of 4.22 tonnes.

The GHG report – released by the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia here on Wednesday – compares five independent modelling studies showing that India’s per capita emission will remain between 2.77 and 5 tonnes.
The UN climate negotiations should be on the basis of per capita emission because it recognises the principle of equity, Ramesh said.

20 times lower
Though India is one of the world’s biggest polluters in absolute terms, its per capita emission is 20 times lower than that of the USA and ten times lower than Europe.
“But it does not mean we have a do-nothing strategy,” the minister said, stressing on programmes to be undertaken in the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
The government will take legal steps to facilitate green action. One of the first steps would be an amendment to the Energy Conservation Act which is likely to be placed in Parliament in the upcoming winter session.

The Centre plans to bring out an amendment to the Energy Conservation Act so that a new system of issuing energy-efficient certificates can be introduced. Companies with better energy efficiency standards can trade these certificates.