India and China have been strongly opposing the developed nations' move to impose a tax on countries that fail to abide by a binding climate treaty as the two major growing economies will have to take emission control measures.
India and China may have different greenhouse gas emission levels but what brings the two Asian giants together is the fact that both are opposed to any global pact that would put a brake on their economic growth, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said today.
"China's emissions are about four times India's emissions. So by no means can China and India be equated in the level of greenhouse gas emissions," Ramesh said at a seminar on India-China relations organised in New Delhi by Communist Party of China and Congress party.
"Even though the levels of emissions are just not different but are dramatically different... we certainly have a commanality of interest in ensuring that there is no international agreement that puts an artificial barrier on our growth prospects," he said.
China is the world's leading emittor accounting for about 22% of the world's carbon emissions followed by US (21%), the EU (13%) and India at about 5%.
India and China have been strongly opposing the developed nations' move to impose a tax on countries that fail to abide by a binding climate treaty as the two major growing economies will have to take emission control measures.
However, Ramesh asserted that even under the most aggressive growth estimates over the next ten years, India's share in the GHG emissions will not exceed more than 8-9% by 2020.
"So we are not in the same league as far as emissions are concerned. Both the countries (India and China) have relatively low per capita incomes but nevertheless the most important common thread is that neither of the two would like an international agreement to put a barrier on future economic growth prospects," the minister maintained.
He sought to make it clear that despite the insistence of developed nations, there was no question of taking binding carbon emission cuts, a position that India and China along with other Basic members such as Brazil and South Africa maintained at the UN summit on climate change at Copenhagen in Denmark last year.
Ramesh said that within the Basic group, climate change was the immmediate provocation for India and China to build a very close relationship in coordinating our international position.
"But there are certain other areas as well where we have taken cooperation forward," Ramesh said of various steps taken in the last one year in the field of forestary, environment pollution and wildlife conservation.
"We are now looking at collaboration in the area of clean technology such as renewable energy," the minister added.
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