The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan assures to rein in per capita carbon emissions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 10, 2007
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Manmohan assures to rein in per capita carbon emissions

K. Venugopal

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured leaders of the G-8, the group of eight industrialised nations, that India and other emerging economies would do their bit to rein in carbon emissions.

Speaking to the media on board the special aircraft bringing him back from the G-8 summit in Germany, Dr. Singh said he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that they would see to it that the per capita emissions would not exceed those of the developed nations.

Describing it as a two-way deal, he said, "If they reduce their emissions, we will also do so."

It was the first concrete formulation of a response from the emerging economies to demands from the G-8 that emerging economies must assume their share of the responsibility to cut their carbon emissions in order to mitigate the effects of global warming. Dr Singh noted that the idea was received positively by Ms. Merkel.

Even though India is one of the larger consumers of energy in the world, given its large population, the carbon emission per capita is only one fourth of the global average and just 4 per cent of that of the United States.

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