China, EU & US to use 28% of global carbon space by 2030

NEW DELHI: The world's three major polluters China, EU and the US are expected to use much before the year 2030 at least 28 per cent of the total world's carbon space available for next 85 years, think-thank CEEW said.

Amid these concerns, climate change adaptation needs to be central to any global climate deal likely to be signed in Paris later this week, it said.

According to the analysis of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), about 1,000 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2eq) is left for the world between 2015 and 2100, of which at least 28 per cent would be occupied by three nations -- China, the EU and the US.

About 168 GtCO2eq carbon space will be used by China, 70 GtCO2eq by the US and 50 GtCO2eq by the EU much before 2030, the city-based body said in a statement.

CEEW said there would be little global carbon space left for the rest of the world when the largest historical polluters continue emitting greenhouse gases.

"Countries need to start thinking right now on allocating carbon space based on principles of historical responsibility and economic capabilities," CEEW CEO Arunabha Ghosh said.

India, with its ambitious renewable energy goals, has already committed to higher mitigation than its fair share, in effect freeing up carbon space for other developing countries, he said.

In Paris, 196 countries are currently negotiating a new global pact to tackle climate change and keep global temperature rise in check, below 2°C, by the end of the century.

The government has repeatedly noted that the developed world needs to vacate the carbon space to accommodate the development of nations such as India.

Carbon space refers to how much each nation can still emit into the earth's atmosphere without setting in motion dangerous climate change.