India is the world's third leading producer of carbon dioxide and, amid growing concerns over the implications of a warming planet, the country is under pressure to come up with a strategy to address climate change.
The Asian country, however, has qualms about striking a deal to cut its emission of the greenhouse gas. India's environment minister said that for his country to eliminate poverty, its per capita carbon emissions will have to increase rapidly.
On Dec. 5, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said that India cannot afford to cut its greenhouse gas emission as doing so would be at the expense of the country's economic growth. Javadekar made his statement before leaving for Peru, where representatives from 195 countries gather for the Lima Climate Change Conference, the objective of which is to come up with a draft of an agreement addressing climate change that will be adopted in Paris in 2015.
Javadeka said that he is optimistic that the industrialized nations would be willing to carry more of the burden of cutting carbon emissions since they had been emitting greenhouse gas with fossil fuels for a long time before the developing nations did.
He added that India will call for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol that called for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
"Developed countries must take up their responsibilities which are due," Javadekar said. "Those who were not part of the Kyoto protocol -- USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand -- they must also take voluntary action. And must declare what will be their actions till 2020."
The minister cited poverty as the worst environmental disaster that needs to be immediately addressed; reducing emissions could compromise the growth of India, where millions of people still live in poverty and without access to electricity.
Javadekar said that the poorest members of society have the right to have access to energy, and no one should dispute this right.
"Our growth cannot be compromised," Javadekar said. "Poverty needs to be eradicated immediately. Poor people have aspirations. We must fulfill them. We must give them energy access. We cannot and nobody can question on this."
India's pollution is less than a quarter of the level produced by China, the number one carbon emitter, but experts worry that as India's population exponentially grows and more people become richer, its share of global carbon emission will also significantly increase.
