West should share burden of greenhouse gas emissions: Chidambaram

United Nations, Sep 25 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram said India is committed to sustainable development and sustainable methods of production and consumption.

Addressing the UN meet on Climate Change yesterday, convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Mr Chidambaram said India has one of the lowest per capita emission rates of major greenhouse gases.

The minister, who is the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to the global meet, addressed the high-level meeting titled 'The Future in Our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change.' He said developed nations should bear the major burden for climate change because of their high levels of emissions of such gases.

''Developed nations are therefore obliged to significantly augment their capacity to cope with and adapt to climate change,'' he said, citing the principle of ''common but differentiated responsibilities.'' Mr Chidambaram pointed out the importance of energy, saying India produces 662 billion units of electricity from all sources.

''Energy is the sine qua non of development. We're obliged to explore every option available to us to produce or procure energy.

However, we are profoundly concerned about environmental degradation and climate change,'' he said.

''This year we set up a special committee to look into the impact of climate change,'' he said adding that it will study the impact of anthropogenic climate change on the country and identify the measures that are to be taken in the future.

UNI