The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has called for efforts by both developing and developed nations to intensify efforts for developing a low carbon economy in the backdrop of the Copenhagen climate change summit. Developing countries such as India have a responsibility to their citizens to grow rapidly to meet and exceed the UN Millennium goals. This growth can be consistent with reducing carbon intensity in their economies.
CII said consistent policies and actions could achieve this. Developed countries must take deeper reduction commitments, both in medium and long term, such as 25 per cent reduction by 2020 and 80 per cent reduction by 2050 from the 1990 level.
CII has recommended Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions, or Nama, which would factor in resource constraints of developing countries and should not divert funding from other developmental priorities.
“The outcome of the summit should be equitable and should reflect the needs of developing countries such as India where a significant portion of our population do not have access to energy. India will take Nama. However, any limits that can affect our development will not be appropriate or acceptable,” said Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman, CII climate change council.
The industry body stated that the present climate change negotiations must work out a mechanism to enable the transfer of high-impact climate-friendly technologies to developing countries. For technologies not commercially viable in developing countries, a global fund should be created to buy technological patents from original innovators and facilitate easier transfer to developing countries.
“For developing countries, additional financing to support mitigation and adaptation actions is quite critical. Developed countries must commit to necessary financial resources to be transferred to developing countries. This must be additional to the existing overseas developmental aid,” said CII Director General Chandrajit Banerji.
CII further recommended that parties should agree to significantly scale up carbon market activity, simplify procedural requirements and reduce transaction costs to capture the true potential of carbon instruments in assisting developing countries to mitigate climate change. A portion of proceeds of carbon trading could be used to finance adaptation efforts in developing countries. However, a separate global financial and institutional structure should be established that can greatly accelerate the adaptation measures in vulnerable countries.
