India warns against dilution of rich nations GHG emission commitment

New Delhi, Dec 12 (UNI) Pointing out that green house gases emissions of developed countries had increased since 2000, India today told the UN climate summit at Bali that there should be no dilution of time bound commitments on emmission reductions by these countries.

''We are concerned at attempts to create a new framework which may result in dilution of such commitments. Any such dilution would have disastrous and irreversible consequences for future generations,'' head of the Indian delegation to the talks Kapil Sibal said addressing the conference.

He said with a single exception, no developed state had given any indication of the range by which they would reduce their emissions in the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol.

The 190-nation climate change talks start two years of negotiations to agree to a new treaty to succeed Kyoto and involve all nations in a fight against global warming from 2013.

The developing countries want rich countries to do more, before they agree and developed nations want the developing world, particularly India and China, to commit themselves to emission reduction from which they were exempted under the existing Kyoto Protocol.

Underlining that 600 million people in India did not have access to electricity, Mr Sibal said his country had no choice but to rapidly expand energy use to realise its development goals.

The Minister said the per capita emission of CO2 in India was among the lowest in the world, but despite that, the country was taking measures that inherently promote sustainable development.

''This includes a National Environment Policy, an Energy Conservation Act and a new Electricity Act that mandates the procurement of electricity from renewables. And now, we have the fourth largest wind power capacity in the world,'' he said.

Stressing that technology was a key enabler in the efforts to tackle climate change, Mr Sibal called for international efforts for transferring cost effective advanced clean technolgies to developing countries most of whom rely on fossil fuels for their power needs.

''The IPR regime must balance rewards for innovators with common good of humankind, and standards and norms must reflect the development levels of where they are being deployed,'' he said.

Mr Sibal reiterated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's promise at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm that India's per capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions would at no stage exceed the per capita GHG emissions of the developed world even as it pursued its economic development.

Finally he said, ''Bali needs to send out strong messages.

Without doubt the most important one should be that the negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol for quantified, time bound and substantial GHG emissions by develped nations post 2012 will be completed by 2009.'' Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena also said 'It is upto the developed world to assist developing countries, including India. We are not ripe enough to make any binding commitments. We are a developing country.'' UNI NAZ BDP AS2013