India says to tackle poverty before global warming
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-16 20:43
"GLOBAL EFFORTS"
Kyoto backers say that other countries have to do more to help avert
wrenching climate changes that could drive up sea levels by up to a metre by
2100, disrupt farming, spawn more floods and desertification and spread
diseases.
U.N. reports say that developing nations are likely to be among the hardest
hit.
Kyoto obliges industrial nations to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases by
5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 as a tiny first step to cut emissions.
"Global joint efforts are needed in the coming decades," the European Union
said in a statement, saying Kyoto backers "will not be able to combat climate
change effectively on their own."
It said Kyoto backers accounted for only about 30 percent of all emissions in
2000. Among outsiders, the United States is the biggest source of emissions on
24 percent, ahead of China on 12.1 percent and India with 4.7 percent.
The United States pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it would cost jobs and
wrongly excluded developing nations from a first round. Washington is instead
making big investments in new technologies, ranging from hydrogen to solar
power.
The Bonn talks started with talks among all nations on Monday and Tuesday.
Kyoto nations will meet from May 17-25 to discuss how to extend the pact beyond
2012.
India also said that its energy use was low, and that India was more
productive than Sweden or the United States when judged by how much energy it
used per dollar of economic output.
Even with strong growth, use of new technologies such as solar power and
greater energy efficiency, India will use less energy per capita by the 2030s
than the world average from 2003, said Surya Sethi, an adviser to India's
Planning Commission.
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