THE HEAT IS ON

UN endorses India on climate change

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: For the first time, a UN agency has endorsed India and developing countries on the climate change front. In its World Economic and Social Survey Report 2009, the UN said rich countries had consumed more than their fair share of carbon space and needed to take deep emission cuts if the new climate agreement was to be equitable.

The survey said investments in energy infrastructure would have to be doubled from the existing $500 billion per year to $1 trillion and there was a need to spend approximately $20 trillion by 2030 to move the world to a low carbon growth path.

The report, released on Wednesday by Sunita Narain, director of Centre for Science and Environment, warned that industrialised countries had already emitted 209 gigatonnes of carbon. If the rise in global temperatures was to be kept below 2°C, industrialised countries would have to reduce their emissions by more than 100% below 1990 levels by 2050.

At present, industrialised countries have not agreed to reduce their emissions by even 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

Releasing the report, Narain said: “The report makes it clear that to avert climate catastrophe, industrialised countries have to take deep emission cuts and the developing countries have to participate. But in this new global deal, the participation has to be conditional on transfer of technology and funding.”

The report, coming months before the critical UN negotiations lead to an agreement in December at Copenhagen, could provide another weapon in the Indian arsenal when it asks the rich nations to bear the burden of their ‘historic responsibility’ in emitting greenhouse gases.

The UN survey pointed out that in a fair deal, industrialised countries should only occupy 21% of the global carbon budget. But it added that even under the most ambitious proposal from the rich nations, they would end up consuming 48% of the budget, at the cost of the poorer nations.

The report also recommended a global clean energy fund, a better carbon trading mechanism and a forestrelated financing mechanism.