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'India will not agree to emissions limits'
A Raja has said that India being a developing country will not agree to the cuts imposed on other nations.
Environment Minister A Raja said on Thursday that India will not agree to the binding cuts on greenhouse gases imposed by the Kyoto Protocol, though it would accept help to reduce emissions.
Instead, India hopes to boost its nuclear industry that will help save its cities from choking air pollution.
As per the Kyoto Protocol, about 40 developed countries are obliged to cut their emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2008-2012. But being developing nations, India and China have been exempted from the mandatory cuts.
India, along with the United States, Australia, South Korea, Japan and China, is also a part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which hopes to tackle climate change without hindering economic growth.
"Neither the Kyoto Protocol nor this partnership can stipulate anything upon India to reduce emissions," Raja said in an interview.
"We are developing countries. We have our own agendas for our development activities. So we cannot promise anything or make any commitments to further reduce our emissions," he added.
The Asia Pacific Partnership ended two days of talks on Thursday pledging a multi-million-dollar fund to develop clean energy, but said that polluting fossil fuels would continue to underpin their economies for generations.
