India hoping for a fair agreement at Copenhagen summit: Ramesh

New Delhi, Sep. 2 (ANI): Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, said on Wednesday that India is looking forward to a fair and equitable agreement at Copenhagen meet on climate change.

"We are definitely looking forward to Copenhagen. We are looking forward to a fair and equitable agreement that recognizes common and differentiated responsibility principle. An agreement that doesn't allows perfect to be the enemy of good. An agreement that is flexible enough to have an agreement in areas of where there is relatively less discord," Ramesh said, addressing delegates at a carbon conclave here.

Ramesh said that India's efforts against climate change are not confined to adaptation to alternative energies.

"National action plan on climate change is actually a mix of adaptation and mitigation. Two missions are specifically oriented towards the mitigation and a large number of activity whether it is energy efficiency mission, whether it is solar mission, whether it is a mission on sustainable habitat," Ramesh said.

According to the World Resources Institute, India's total GHG emissions stood at 1,853 million metric tons equivalent of carbon dioxide, about 4.9 percent of global emissions in 2005.

A new government report says that the country contributes around five percent to global carbon dioxide emissions and is still only about a quarter of the emissions of China and the United States.

India's per capita emissions are estimated at only one-twentieth of the United States and about one-tenth of Western Europe and Japan.

International summit on climate change is scheduled at Copenhagen in December where international community concerned about impacts of degrading climate is scheduled to meet. (ANI)