India is aware of NASA's underestimation of methane effect: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi, Nov 30 (ANI) : The Union Government on Monday said it is aware of a recent National Aero Space Administration (NASA) study which states that climate scientists have underestimated the extent of warming caused by methane.

In a written reply to lawmakers Sanjay Raut and Govindrao Adik, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said: "The findings of the scientists at Columbia University and NASA's space flight center states that potency of methane gas emitted by different industries and its impact on global warming, had been largely under estimated while signing the Kyoto Protocol."

The discussion on common metrics to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removal by sinks is underway in the Ad hoc working group on Kyoto Protocol, Ramesh informed the House.

"The parties have requested the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advise to assess, based inter alia on the work of, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the implications of the choice of metrics used to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of the greenhouse gases listed in Annex A to the Kyoto Protocol for the third or subsequent commitment periods," he said.

He also informed the House that parties are also engaged in negotiations to reach an agreed outcome during the Copenhagen summit next month. (ANI)