In a strong message, India on Wednesday asked developed countries to change their “unsustainable lifestyles” so as to significantly cut down carbon emissions by 2020 and ensure that developing nations have enough resources to pursue accelerated development while coping with climate change.
Speaking at a Round Table during the Climate Change summit at the United Nations, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna called on developed countries to deliver on significant reduction in their emissions — at least 40 per cent by 2020, from the agreed 1990 baseline.
“We cannot get away from the fundamental fact that unsustainable lifestyle and patterns of production and consumption in the developed world have caused climate change... This cannot continue,” he said.
“The way forward must ensure that developing countries can pursue growth and poverty eradication,” he said, while pledging that India would pursue unilateral voluntary measures.
“We have also repeatedly reaffirmed that our per-capita emissions will never exceed the average per capita emissions of developed countries, even as we pursue our development objectives,” he said.
Mr. Krishna told world leaders here that India continued to face enormous developmental challenges and poverty eradication remained its top priority.
“Nearly 200 million live on less than $1 a day and nearly 500 million do not have access to modern sources of energy. Our overriding priority, therefore, has to be eradication of poverty, for which we must address our energy poverty and use all sources of energy, including fossil fuels.”
“The creation of mechanisms along with provision of financial resources and access to technology which will enable us to upscale our national efforts is an important expectation that we have from Copenhagen,” he added.
He noted that India was taking many domestic adaptation and mitigation actions on a voluntary basis, including solar energy, extensive deployment of renewables, use of clean coal technologies, boosting energy efficiency and promotion of green agriculture.
He also said that domestic actions should not be “crimped by an international review obligation.”
The high-level summit, which featured more than 100 world leaders, was convened to mobilise political will ahead of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The meeting is expected to yield a climate treaty to succeed Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
Beside Mr. Krishna, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh was also present at the summit.
