What department/ministry in India is primarily supposed to be tackling this problem btw?

I don’t understand much of the technical details you’ve written about. But I am quite convinced that India emits significant amount of Carbon owing to the large population usage of traditional sources of fuel for cooking.

And the consequences India can face are really scary. A small change in climate can mean a huge loss in a country like India. So better do our karma and not compare with others.

The approaches in which west is talking to reduce emission from populated developing conutries will not only put a check on GDP but also on food production.

Pradeep,

Thanks for visiting and for the comment.

Any sustainable use of wood is, by definition, carbon neutral. This is because wood would have grown by taking in carbon dioxide from atmosphere and when you burn it, you release it back. This is carbon neutral. When you burn a fossil fuel, you are taking out carbon trapped in earth’s crust in the form of oil (or coal) and releasing it to atmosphere. This adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Therefore, in theory, if you let as much wood grow back as you cut, you don’t add to the problem.

Look at the following study: Greenhouse gas emissions from India: A perspective . It is clear that GHG emission by agriculture and forestry is dwarfed by industrial and energy related emission by orders of magnitude. Also observe that agriculture is adding methane (CH4), mostly. While this is a more potent GHG it is also short lived in the atmosphere as it is oxidized eventually. So, India’s carbon dioxide emissions comes from people like us. The total per-capita emission is low because the poor and rural communities don’t put up as much GHGs! More to this point, agriculture has the potential to be a GHG SINK, while our urban economies are growing increasingly dependent on carbon tainted energy infrastructure.

While China has publicly committed to do something about the problem and is seeking alternatives, India is stubbornly fighting ANY request of it to reduce. So we can’t group the two together. This critique doesn’t apply to China.

The rate at which we should reduce, what industrialized economies should do and the question of fairness are all valid questions. We must make the west help us cope, that is one of my core points. However, it is not the time for bickering and finger pointing but the time for decisive action.

-Rajesh

Even though what you are telling is correct, I do not see any conflict in India’s stand on Carbon emissions control. In countries like US, Western Europe & Australia carbon emissions are due to heavy industrialization and increased usage of fossil fuels. While in India largest source of CO2 emissions is burning of wood in rural India (In fact, there is a report that indicates that ozone over Bihar region is thinner due to burning of wood).

However, this cannot be controlled until we provide an alternative source to generate heat required for cooking, heating water, etc. On the other hand, emissions by industrialized nations is completely controllable. Hence, the pressure on developed countries to reduce carbon emissions. Further, I don’t think China & India have told that they’ll not cut carbon emissions. Instead, what they are telling is that the rate at which they’ll have to reduce must not be same as industrialized nations which I believe is reasonable.