Lalit K Jha/PTI / Washington Dec 05, 2009, 14:25 IST
Welcoming New Delhi's announcement of reduction in emission intensity, a top US Senator has said that India's proposal in this regard "with respect to accountability" is better than that of China.
"They have put the language on the table that's actually stronger than China's with respect to the accountability and the measuring," Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the PBS news channel in an interview.
Kerry is a key architect of the Kerry-Boxer bill in the US Congress that aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 83 per cent by 2050 and 20 per cent over the next decade from 2005 levels.
Kerry said the recent emission cut announcements made by China and India is a result of US President Barack Obama's personal talks with the leaders of these two countries.
"If the President had not had the conversations that he had when he was in China, I don't think that he would have come to the point of making a decision to do 17 per cent reduction and I don't think China would have followed a day later with its decision," Kerry said.
India has decided to offer a reduction in carbon emission intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020 over 2005 levels.
Kerry also believes that Copenhagen will come out with a political agreement that will have mandatory reductions that people will agree to.
"I believe it will come up with a prompt start to those reductions at the beginning of next year or so. It will also come up with a financing mechanism that will provide funding to some of the less-developed countries to assist them to be part of the solution so we can transfer technology," the Senator said.
However, he noted that it won't be the final treaty language.
"But a political agreement to which each of the heads of state sign up to with a prompt beginning with transparency and verification that is something that then is much more easily translated into the treaty language over the course of the next months," he said.
"In addition, if China and India and other developed countries have stepped up with mandatory reduction targets, that is going to help Senators and Congressmen to be able to say okay, now we're moving down a global path," he added.
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