Global financial crisis could affect climate change mitigation: Saran

The global financial crisis might adversely impact the developed countries? resource allocation towards climate change mitigation efforts, Shyam Saran Prime Minister?s special envoy on climate change on Thursday said.

?We may not be able to get the kind of financial resources commitments required from the developed countries towards climate change mitigation and adaptation given the acute financial crisis,? Shyam Saram told FE.

He said the attention given to climate change issues might be given lower priority as the whole attention is focused towards reviving the financial system in the developed countries.

However, the financial crisis might provide opportunities for green technologies transfer from developed to developing countries through collaborative efforts at the global level, he said.

He commented that the impact of climate change mitigation through carbon trading has yet to be assessed as there is ?uncertainty?about the clean development mechanism (CDM) after 2012 as approved by the Kyoto Protocol (2008-2012) ratified under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC).

While addressing the Indian Carbon Market conclave organized by Ficci, Saran said series of international negotiations on climate change have not yielded effective results due to lack of collaborative efforts by all the countries.

?Instead of a progressive effort, most of the developed countries have been protecting their own national interest while discussing on cutting down on carbon emission,? he said.

?We must dispense with competitive approach (through carbon trading) and adopt more collaborative efforts in bringing down carbon emission across the globe,? Saran said.

He stressed upon the need for more transparency in the carbon trading business as the processes are still not very clear to large number of people.

On the domestic fronts, the country needs to move from carbon-based energy production to non-carbon based production from renewable sources such as solar, wind, biomass etc, he said.

The government is working on specific targets towards reducing carbon emission and adoptation of renewable source of energy under the eight missions approved under the national action plan on climate change recently.

Under the national action plan approved in June, the government created eight missions focusing on areas like solar energy, mission for enhances energy efficiency, water mission, mission for green India, mission for sustainable habitat, mission for sustaining the himalayan ecosystem, sustainable agriculture and creation of strategic knowledge for climate change.

While the actual data on the current India?s greenhouse emissions is yet to be compiled, the data goes back to 1994.

In 1994, per capita emission was just 0.87 tonne per person per year which according to an estimate has increased to 1.1 tonne per person till now which still very ?low?compared to developed countries. The US emits roughly 20 tonne green house gas compared to 4 tonne by China.