Why Should We Do More to Cut Greenhouse Gases?

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today rejected suggestions from several developed countries that India and other developing countries increase their commitments to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) to address the problem of climate change, saying that it was the developed world which had contributed much more to the problem.

Inaugurating a Ministerial meeting at the ongoing eighth conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on climate Change (UNFCCC-COP8), Mr. Vajpayee said the suggestions were totally misplaced. The per capita GHG emissions of the developing countries were only a fraction of the world average, while those of the developed countries were much higher. What was more, the situation would not change for several decades.

"We do not believe that the ethos of democracy can support any norm other than equal per capita rights to global environmental resources,'' Mr. Vajpayee asserted.

Besides, the per capita incomes in the developing countries were a fraction of those of the industrialised countries, and making fresh commitments to mitigate the ill-effects of climate change would impose an additional burden on their already fragile economies — they would affect their efforts to achieve higher GDP growth rates to eradicate poverty speedily.

Mr. Vajpayee discounted the claim that developing countries generated more GHG than what their economies warranted and said that on a purchasing power parity basis, the emissions of the developing world were lower, and, in any case, not higher than that of the industrialised countries.

The Prime Minister highlighted the concerns of the developing countries over the lack of their adequate capacity to tackle the adverse impact of climate change and urged that the UNFCCC Convention pay more attention to the aspect of vulnerability and adaptation.

Emphasising that food and nutritional well-being were priority issues for the developing countries, he said agricultural sustainability, water conservation and problem of weather-related economic losses and deaths were some of the key areas related to adaptation. "There is a need for strengthening the capacity of the developing countries in coping with extreme weather events, which are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change.''

India was deeply committed to the goals of sustainable development and, despite not having given specific commitments to reduce GHG emissions under UNFCCC, it was taking several measures in that direction. "As the cumulative effect of all the policies and measures, the energy intensity of our GDP has been declining steadily,'' he said.

In a message to the conference, the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, drew attention to the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg and pointed out that the consensus reached there had significant implications for the efforts to address climate change and its adverse effects.

"One challenge for this Conference of Parties is to consider whether, and to what extent, the approaches, goals, and methods agreed in Johannesburg are a basis for cooperation in this forum.'' The message was read out by the U.N. Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai.