Montek objects to emission norms

Ahluwalia said there was an increasing acceptance of the argument that per capita emissions by a country was the right basis to fix responsibility of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

8220;Any reduction strategy based solely on total global emissions, and not differentiating on the basis of per capita emissions by countries, is fundamentally flawed and goes against the tenets of equality,8221; he said.

India is the fourth largest carbon emitter in the world, releasing 1,342 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2004. However, its per capita emission is just 1.2 tonnes of CO2, which is 17 times less than that of United States.

The Human Development Report for this year is titled 8216;Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World8217;. The report prescribes a 50 per cent global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to the 1990 levels for a sustainable future.

To achieve this, it suggests that developed countries should cut their emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, of which 20-30 per cent cuts should happen by 2020 itself. Then it goes on to suggest targets for developing countries too, saying major emitters among the developing nations, after continuing in the business-as-usual mode till 2020, should aim at 20 per cent cuts by 2050.

It is this recommendation that has raised the tempers in India. Under the Kyoto Protocol, which runs till 2012, the developing countries are not required to reduce their carbon emissions. India and other developing countries are opposed to the introduction of any such commitments in a post-Kyoto framework too.

Ahluwalia said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had presented an important formulation at the recent G-8 summit in Germany based on per capita emissions, which has found support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

8220;The Prime Minister also made a proposition that the developing countries would never undertake anything that would exceed the per capita emissions by the developed countries,8221; he said. 8220;That, in fact, should be seen as a concession to the developed countries because it relieves them of the burden of their past emissions.8221;

Chairman of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC R K Pachauri had also criticised the HDR on Monday saying certain sections of the report were 8220;a bit questionable to say the least.8221;