Environment

India’s environment proposal

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A move by India to limit its own greenhouse gas emissions could help break the stalemate at UN climate talks this week. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.

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MARCO WERMAN: The United States has long been reluctant to commit to steep reductions in its carbon emissions and that’s in part because fast growing developing countries like China and India don’t want to commit to big cuts of their own.  They say they don’t want to sacrifice their economic growth to fix a problem they didn’t create.  This has been a huge stumbling block for negotiators trying to draft a new international climate treaty.  Now, a head of special climate talks this week at the U.N., India is making a move that could help break the deadlock.  The Indian government is promising legislation to cap its own carbon emissions.  Jairam Ramesh is India’s Environment Minister.

JAIRAM RAMESH:  India is committing to undertake voluntary mitigation actions with specified quantitative targets by the year 2020.  For mitigating greenhouse gases in transportation, in power, in industry, in a whole set of sectors.

WERMAN:  Could you give us a few numbers for what you’re trying to set up for yourself?

RAMESH:  Well for example, we will have mandatory fuel efficiency standards by the year 2011.  That we will have mandatory building codes by the year 2012.  That by the year 2020, fifty percent of our coal despot production will come from clean coal technology.  By the year 2020, we are committing to twenty percent of our power generating capacity coming from renewable energy.

WERMAN:  And Mr. Minister, how is India proposing to achieve these goals?  Where is the money going to come from?

RAMESH:  Well we have a national action plan on climate change.  It has these details of each of these mitigation actions.  What is new is that we are giving quantitative targets for these mitigation actions.

WERMAN:  Would these reductions be absolute, in other words would they be based on today’s emissions or based on tomorrow’s emissions?

RAMESH:  What we are saying is you know in each of these specific mitigation actions, we are not giving an explicit target of greenhouse gas emission cuts.  That would be difficult but this would be implicit to targets.  Because when we are saying that fifty percent of oil based power production will come from clean coal, it is a deviation from what would have otherwise taken place without the introduction of clean coal technology.  In any case, even without taking these targets, we will always be below the developed world in terms of per capita emissions.

WERMAN:  You said you hope that what India is doing will lead to movement by your neighbor, China in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But what about the notion that India could emerge as a leader and actually try and push the U.S. into better greenhouse gas practices?

RAMESH:  First of all, there’s no comparison between India and China on the greenhouse gas emission front.  China is about almost five times our greenhouse gas emissions.  I think the big challenge for all of us today, whether it’s India, whether it’s China, whether it’s Europe, is to get the United States onto the negotiating table.  I understand you know there are domestic, political factors in the United States, as there are in India.  I also understand that in the case of countries like the United States, greenhouse gas emission cuts means a change in lifestyle and that is always a difficult thing to do but we have to create conditions conducive to a re-entry of the United States to take on the emission cuts in keeping with the historical responsibility of having created the global warming phenomenon in the first place.

WERMAN:  There’s actually talk right now that the U.S. negotiating position may actually be moving toward a position similar to India’s, a willingness to set internal targets and timetables but not to be bound by international law.  Do you …

RAMESH:  Well, it is a huge step forward.  We are discussing this with the United States.  Next week I’ll be in Washington.  We are looking for leadership for the United States in this area.

WERMAN:  What do you think the prospects are for an agreement at the final climate treaty talks in Copenhagen in December?

RAMESH:  Well the starting point of any agreement is a commitment by the developed world to take on substantial emission cuts.  I’m an internal optimist.  Countries are recognizing their responsibilities.  They’re making offers on the table.  We would like to make it easy for countries like the U.S. and the European Union to come on and make meaningful cuts and if it means taking on obligations domestically for ourselves, we are prepared to do that.

WERMAN:  Jairam Ramesh is the Indian Environment Minister.  He spoke with us from New York.  Mr. Ramesh, thank you so very much.

RAMESH:  Thank you very much.

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