India on Tuesday slammed a recommendation in a new report from the UN Development Programme that urges developing countries cut carbon emissions by 20 percent over three decades starting in 2020.
The report released in Brazil on Tuesday on fighting climate change said global warming could have apocalyptic consequences for the world's poor and also said richer countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.
"This looks egalitarian, but it isn't," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's national policy making body, the Planning Commission, in New Delhi, pointing out in terms of per capita emissions the US emits 20 tonnes, the European Union 10 to 15 tonnes and India one.
Ah, but what's not said is that India and China are both growing in their emissions at rates that are much faster and have populations higher than anyone else. This past year according to some estimates China surpassed the US for carbon emissions a decade earlier than anticipated. Per capita, China would only be somewhere around 5 tonnes. 1/4 that of the US per capita. Yet it has a population 4 times larger and if they reach the same emissions per capita, or even half, they will have more than than the US + Europe do now together. Then add India with its population growing doubleplusuberfast and its emissions per capita rising even faster...
Yep, this is gonna be inevitable. Better start looking at what to do to adapt and mitigate. Forget using the word 'prevent' wrt global warming.
No comments:
Post a Comment