India ‘will not announce’ carbon emissions peak year

Posted by Jeff on Jul 5, 2015 @ 1:49 pm in Conservation | 0 comments | Last modified: July 5, 2015

Prakash Javadekar said that Delhi would submit plans to cut emissions to the UN, but would not announce a target date for when it expected its total carbon emissions to drop. His comments came two days after China told the United Nations that its emissions would peak around 2030. India is the world’s third largest carbon emitter, after China and the US.

Scientists say global emissions need to peak and drop soon if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change.

“The world is not expecting… India to announce its peaking year,” said Prakash Javadekar. “Countries know where India stands and what its requirements [development needs] are and therefore nobody has asked us for [the] peaking year.” The peaking year is when a country’s emissions reach the highest level before they begin to drop.

Beijing went public with its peak year when it submitted its climate plan to the United Nations climate convention. The US has pledged to cut its carbon emissions by 26-28% by 2025.

All 190 plus countries in the convention have been asked to submit their climate plans – known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) – in the UN negotiations. Over 40 countries have submitted them and many eyes are now on India.

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