India committed towards sustainable growth: FM

Stressing that its per capita emission of major greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is among the lowest in the world, India has said it is committed towards sustainable development and sustainable patterns of production and consumption.

Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram told the developed nations, at a conference on climate change called by the United Nations yesterday, that developing countries bear an "inordinate" share of burden of climate change due to high level of emission by the industrial countries.

"The developing countries are, therefore, obliged to significantly augment their capacity to cope with and adapt to climate change," he said and stressed in this context the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities."

However, Chidambaram told the delegates, including several heads of the state, that India, being an energy deficient country, is obliged to explore every option available to produce and procure energy.

Stressing his point with statistics, he said in 2006-07, India produced 662 billion units of electricity from all sources for a population of over a billion people.

"Energy is the sine qua non of development. We are obliged to explore every option available to us to produce or procure energy. However, we are profoundly concerned about environmental degradation and climate change," he said.

India, he said, has taken a number of measures that are inherently supportive of sustainability and development.

"We have insisted on use of CNG in public transport, we have metro rail in many cities and we have commenced a major bio-diesel programme including mandatory blending of ethanol in petrol," he said.