NEW DELHI: India should reduce its tariffs on imports of environmental goods and services from 15 per cent to facilitate the flow of technology, James L. Connaughton, Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality, The White House, said here on Saturday.

Addressing an outreach workshop on the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP), organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said the U.S. imposes 3-8 per cent tariffs on such imports that were non-negotiable, while the Indian Government tariffs were negotiable.

New technology was critical for improving efficiencies and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. "The U.S. has posted a GDP growth of 4.2 per cent in 2003-04 but the growth of GHG emissions rose just 1.7 per cent,'' said Mr. Connaughton.

APP, a partnership between six countries in the Asia-Pacific Region — the U.S., Australia, China, Japan, Korea and India — aims at reducing the GHG intensity in member countries. It seeks the most profitable opportunities for this by raising energy efficiencies and measures that are economically beneficial.

Mr. Connaughton observed APP did not look at solutions that depend on policies, which hampered economic growth or transfer pollution from one region to another. Economic growth would generate the investments needed to reduce pollution.

The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said the APP complemented the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. It was not a forum for negotiations but for interaction between the government and private sectors where the stakeholders could access technology for reducing GHG intensity.

"The APP can influence movement on GHG emission targets," he said and underlined the fact that India was focusing on improving energy efficiency through setting targets that helped focus attention on major issues. While expressing the hope that the country could get substantial outcomes through the APP, he said India and the U.S. had a multi-faceted exchange programme covering civil nuclear energy, oil and natural gas, renewable energy, clean coal technology and coal mining. The country would continue to be dependent on coal for power generation for the foreseeable future because of its large reserves, unlike those of petroleum. "We need to resolve the problems in use of coal for power generation by adopting newer and better technology because clean energy is vital for development,'' Dr. Ahluwalia said and noted that India needed the technology for ensuring stability of overburden, mining issues, in situ gasification and methane flaring and it could access suitable cost-effective technology through a plurilateral arrangement such as the APP.

Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, said the APP was a process to engage the six countries with the political commitment of their governments.

This extended to deployment of technology, investments, collaboration in R&D and reform of policies and the regulatory framework.

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