Pachauri wants GDP to measure natural resource depletion

Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chief R K Pachauri said there was need to focus on ‘natural debt’ instead of the more familiar financial one while forming national and fiscal policies in view of fast-depleting natural resources.

“Our method of measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not take into account the depletion of natural resources, which we have taken for granted.

The time has come to focus on 'natural debt', to take into account the sustainability and not solely think about financial debt,” he said. He was speaking on the issue of environmental audits at a conference on water pollution. He replied, “Certainly not,” when asked if he would follow the footsteps of Yvo de Boer, the United Nations' (UN) top climate change official, who quit because he was unhappy with the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change conference. The UN has begun an independent review of the IPCC after much criticism on its fourth assessment report, which adapted without adequately verifying a report that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 as a result of global warming.

“The IPCC has already instituted an inquiry. It will reveal the entire thing once the probe is completed,” said Pachauri.

Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor-General of India said his organisation had, for the first time, taken steps for participation of a large number of stakeholders before undertaking audits in areas like the environment which impacted common citizens.