Will India follow China, US to cut emissions?

The joint pledge taken by China and the United States, the two largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November to fight climate change took the world by surprise. But more than any other country, the China-US agreement, under which China will ensure its carbon emissions peak by 2030 and the US will reduce its emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels, has caught India by surprise. In fact, it has put pressure on India, the world's third-largest emitter, to devise ways to reduce its emissions (at least, that is what the informed world tends to believe).

Of course, global responsibility, even according to the now forgotten Kyoto Protocol - which the world allowed to expire in 2012 without having in place a succession treaty - and its common but differentiated responsibility clause, demands that India take some concrete action to reduce pollution. And there can be no second thoughts about this responsibility given that India is a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. But will India take the responsibility?

Perhaps casting an eye over the Indian media's response to the Sino-US deal would answer the question. But since perusing the entire Indian media, because of their diverse focus in dozens of languages, is impractical, let's glance at the English language media outlets, both print and audio-visual, as a representative sample. The English language media in India do not seem to have reacted much, however, to the China-US climate pact.

Nevertheless, some interesting facts have emerged. For example, the two leading English language dailies, The Times of India and the Hindustan Times, responded to the China-US deal with signed articles. The Times of India says, the deal means "India may take it easy on its mitigation part and rather focus on adaptation and increasing its share of renewable energy in the country's total energy mix." No mention of self-imposed emission cuts there.

The article in Hindustan Times on Nov 12 says: "The Environment Ministry will be conducting a series of negotiations with experts from within and outside the government over the next week to strategize for the Lima Climate Summit" in December. But more importantly, it has pointed out that even if the US delivers on its promise, it "would mean its carbon emissions would be at the 1990 level, much higher than what it had told the world when the Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon in 1998".