Wealthy countries should help India to pursue a low-carbon development path: Report

SINGAPORE: India should be given a "generous support package" to pursue its ambitious developmental projects as it has done less harm to the climate than most of the countries despite having 18 per cent share of the world's population, according to an international report.

"It should be noted that India has done less than most countries to cause the climate problem despite having 18 per cent of the world's population, it has accounted for just three per cent of historical global CO2 emissions," Oil Change International report 'The Sky's Limit' said here yesterday.

It pointed out that India, with per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of just $1,600, has an urgent need for economic development.

"Therefore, many argue with good justification that it is unreasonable to expect a country like India to bear an equal burden of addressing climate change to those with far greater historic responsibility.

"The solution could be a generous support package, primarily provided by the wealthy countries that are most responsible for climate change, including climate finance and technology transfer, to help India pursue a low-carbon development path," the report said.

Citing International Energy Agency data, it said India's goal to raise coal production to 1.5 billion metric tonnes per year by 2020. But most commentators expect production growth to fall well short of these goals, it observed.

The report also called on China and Indonesia to make permanent the recent moratorium on new coal mine development.

The US has also imposed limited moratorium on new coal mines on public lands but Australia continues with its coal extraction, said the report which examines and questions the December 2015 Paris Climate Goals, under which world governments agreed to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2°C, and to strive to limit it to 1.5°C.

"The potential carbon emissions from the oil, gas, and coal in the world's currently operating fields and mines would take us beyond 2°C of warming," it warned.

In December last year, 195 countries agreed to the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions as part of the method for reducing greenhouse gas.

With 1.25 billion people, India is world's second most populous nation after China.