Carbon intensity cuts not under pressure: Saran

As climate change talks continued in Copenhagen on the second day of the summit, Indian negotiators again issued a clarification on the country’s recent carbon intensity cuts, saying that India has already taken “domestic action” to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy. Chetan Chauhan examines...The heat is on

Updated on: Dec 9, 2009, 02:36:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Copenhagen

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As climate change talks continued in Copenhagen on the second day of the summit, Indian negotiators again issued a clarification on the country’s recent carbon intensity cuts, saying that India has already taken “domestic action” to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy.

“If our actions outlined in the national action plan on climate change (NAPCC) work, we would be able to reduce our emission intensity as announced,” said Shyam Saran, PM Manmohan Singh’s special envoy on climate change and leader of the Indian delegation.

Critics have said that India announced recent carbon intensity cuts only in response to pressure from developed countries. But Saran, who will be returning to India on Thursday to brief Singh on the latest developments at the conference, said the cuts had nothing to do with international pressure, but were part of India’s larger domestic vision for low-carbon intensity growth.

If India meets the objectives laid out in the NAPCC it will be able to reduce its carbon intensity by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020, Saran said.

Saran ruled out binding emissions cuts. “We cannot allow our growth to be jeopardised. It is a question of providing electricity to 400 million Indians.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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