'India can table national climate plan at Copenhagen'

Leading environment expert R K Pachauri today said India could table its domestic plans on climate change at the Copenhagen meet in case rest of the world agrees for collective commitments on emission cuts and ensures funds and technology to combat the threat.

“Of course, India being a growing country cannot take any binding emission cuts. But if the talks happen in that way (developed nations agreeing for emission reductions), there would be no getting away from the fact that India will be under pressure,” he said.

“I personally think that in that scenario India should be willing to lay its National Action Plan on Climate change at the table at Copenhagen,” the head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said at a function here.

With just six days left for the 15th Conference of Parties at Copenhagen, he called for concrete commitments from the developed nations who have been historically responsible for accumulation of greenhouse gases causing climate change. “There has to be a collective target among countries for setting their emission reduction of about 20 per cent by 2020... they (industrialised nations) would also have to come up with the figure and that how much financial assistance and technology transfer is being provided to the developing countries,” he noted.

Pachauri, the head of the IPCC that has won the Nobel peace prize, said that there was no question of India accepting legally binding emission cuts. "How can India do it. It is totally unacceptable and I don't think anybody in India would favour it given that 400 million people are still to have access to electricity," he said. He reminded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already stated that the country's per capita emission will not exceed above those of the developed nations. However, the climate expert felt that India on its own must take steps to ensure long-term energy security and reduce its dependency on fossil fuels which is estimated to exhaust by 2030.

"If we continue our business as usual, India would have serious problems in respect of supply of fossil fuels. Hence, India is in a situation in which it can exploit solar energy on a large scale and it must clearly bargain for large-scale resources, an issue which would be discussed at Copenhagen," he suggested.

On being asked his perception about the Copenhagen outcome, he predicted that despite all pressures and lot of challenges, "we will get an agreement, of course not in the sense of legally binding commitments".

Governments from across the world are meeting in Copenhagen from December 7 for the final round of talks on a climate accord to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The negotiations are being run by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).