India to set non-binding carbon emissions targets, says minister

India is ready to set non-binding targets for carbon dioxide emissions, said a senior official, signalling a potential shift in its stance towards the UN's climate change negotiations ahead of a key meeting of world leaders in New York next week.

To date, China has fiercely resisted calls from industrialised nations to agree to carbon emission reduction targets as part of the proposed successor to the Kyoto Treaty, which is expected to be finalised at a meeting in Copenhagen in December. India's negotiators have consistently argued that emissions targets could compromise its development efforts and that the onus is on richer nations to deliver deeper cuts in greenhouse gases.

However, speaking to the Indian Express newspaper this week, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that the country would announce non-binding emissions targets. "We are in a position to quantify these reductions into a broadly indicative number that can be shared with the rest of the world," he said. "I see no problem with that."

He added that the government was already committed to a number of intiatives that would deliver "significant reductions" of our greenhouse gas emissions and was preparing draft legislation that would outline "broadly indicative" pathways towards lowering carbon output.

Ramesh's latest views contrast with his standpoint in July, when he publicly rebuked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for calling on India and other large emitters such as China to commit to emission reductions. "There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions," he said.

His latest comments will be welcomed by negotiators involved in the UN process who are about to enter into a crucial series of meetings designed to break the current deadlock over emissions targets.

However, Ramesh told the Indian Express that India was "not going to accept any legally binding commitments on carbon emissions", reinforcing its long-held view that the task of reducing global greenhouse gases mainly lies with wealthy nations.

India's reluctance to set a CO2 limit is underpinned by fears that doing so would hamper its economic growth. The country emits about three billion tonnes of carbon annually, making it the world's fourth-largest polluter. Meanwhile, a report released earlier this month forecast that greenhouse gases in the subcontinent will double by 2031, although officials highlighted the fact that despite the predicted rise, per capita emissions were expected to stay below the global average.