Climate change report puts India, China under pressure

New Delhi, May 6: India might be under greater pressure for cutting down carbon emissions with the U N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its third report released in Bangkok on Friday firmly asking all countries to introduce drastic cuts in their emissions of greenhouse gases to check the rise in temperatures and sea levels that would trigger a disastrous chain of events.

So far, India and China, which is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after United States, have been refusing to agree to any cuts in carbon emission, arguing that decreasing use of hydrocarbons will impact their economic development.

Both the countries depend heavily on hydrocarbons for their energy requirement.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed nations to cut their emissions by certain levels, India, China and other countries are exempted from any such obligations. US and Australia have refused to conform to the Protocol, which is going to expire in 2012.

Dr R K Pachauri, who heads the IPCC, feels India may not escape from the mandate to cut down carbon emissions when the next stage of Kyoto Protocol comes into force in 2012.

Besides cutting down carbon emissions, he said the country should formulate strategy for adaptation to climate change, which had become inevitable because of rise in global temperature.

However, environment economist Dr Jyoti Parekh maintains that it is the developed countries like the United States which are under the foremost obligation to accept the mandate.

''No one would dispute that crabon emissions should be reduced and efforts have to be made by all the countries, and in fact countries like India were doing that, but it is the rich and developed nations that have to lead the way,'' she told UNI.

The IPCC report approved at Bangkok on Friday listed a host of key technologies and policies that India and other countries could adopt to reduce their emissions at an affordable cost to ward off disastrous changes in the climate threatening human existence.

The warning came from experts and representatives of more than 100 countries after five days of deliberations of the UN panel which at present is headed by Dr R K Pachauri, Director of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI).

According to the IPCC study, emission of carbon dioxide needs to be reduced to levels between 50 and 85 per cent by 2050, to contain the rise in global temperature within two degrees, a threshold which it says was needed to ward off the disastrous climate changes.

The technological advances, especially in the generation and use of energy more efficiently, mean that such targets were within reach, the IPCC said.

It has outlined action plans for reducing emissions from industry, transport, power generation, agriculture, forests, and buildings etc. These activities generate the six greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, PFCs and HFCs.

''Some of the cheapest options for reducing (greenhouse) emissions involve electricity savings in buildings, fuel savings in vehicles and increased soil carbon content in agriculture. Because energy supply is the largest contributor to emissions, policies to promote a shift to less carbon-intensive energy sources are particularly effective,'' the report notes.

Dismissing the 'loss of growth' argument, the report says that overall, the cost of reducing and stabilizing GHG emissions ''tends to be comparable to, or lower than, costs of inaction.'' However, the Bush Administration has expresssed its disapproval of the high cost that is invloved in reducing emissions. Since, there is no technology available at present to bring down the cost, the measures for reduction would result in cuts in world gross domestic product of as much as 3 per cent, it said recating to the IPCC advise, according to reports from Washington.

The reports, however, are reflective of global consensus and will play a key role in the coming international political and economic negotiations.

In its two earlier reports this year, the IPCC confirmed that global warming was increasing at an alarming pace most likely due to human activity, affecting the global climate which has made hundreds of millions of people vulnerable to disastrous effects of rise in sea level and droughts and floods. The IPCC studies predict a rise in global temperature to somewhere between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius due to increasing human-induced concentration of greenhouse gases into the atmposphere.

Temperature rose about 0.7 degrees Celsius in the 20th century.

A more warmer globe will spell greater disaster for poor countries like India who have to house and feed a huge population dependent on agriculture, which itself was dependent on vagaries of weather and climate.

The IPCC says if preventive measures were not taken soon, India will be among the major contributors of carbon dioxide, one of the green house gases, into the atmosphere.

More than the geographical features, the climatic changes would affect the socio-economic life of the country.

That is simply because the per capita income and the standard of living was already poor and any adverse impact on agriculture due to climatic changes will spell great complexities.

Along India, its neighbours like Bangladesh will be one of the most seriously affected nations by the global warming and rise in the sea level.

The country would face more droughts, floods and storms, especially in the coastal belts.

There will be a full debate on the issue in Parliament on Tuesday.

UNI