FICCI asks PM not to alter stance on climate change

Industry body FICCI has asked the Prime Minister not to shift positions on climate change at the Copenhagen Summit from the original stand of fixing responsibility of cutting greenhouse gas emissions on a per capita basis.

Industry body FICCI has asked the Prime Minister not to shift positions on climate change at the Copenhagen Summit from the original stand of fixing responsibility of cutting greenhouse gas emissions on a per capita basis.

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"We are alarmed by reports that the government may change its stance on the principle that emission of all countries should converge on per capita basis.

"We strongly suggest that per capita emission remains the basis for greenhouse gas emission reduction," FICCI president Harsh Pati Singhania said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.

Singhania said the Prime Minister had also supported the principle of per capita emission cuts when he spoke recently at the Delhi High Level Conference on Climate Change, Technology Development and Transfer.

"It is important that India and other developing economies push for a climate change regime that has convergence of greenhouse gas emissions on equal per capita basis worldwide," he said.

Singh will be attending the climate summit beginning tomorrow along with a galaxy of world leaders including US president Barack Obama.

Since India is the second most populous country in the world, its per capita emission works out in its favour at 1.2 tonne annually against 20 tonne in the US.