This paper is a part of the initiative taken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that highlights the perceptions of non-OECD country experts, namely Indian experts in this case, on climate change and sustainable development, the negotiating positions that follow from these perceptions, the policies that India has in place and the future plans that India has to deal with these issues.
The paper argues that far from being inactive, developing countries such as India are taking considerable actions in terms of policies, programmes and projects to deal with the problem of climate change. India is a very low contributor to emissions at the global level and most of these emissions are because of the inefficient use of the energy sector. The paper argues that there is indeed a need to pay attention to modernisation of the energy sector to reduce emissions, which can be dealt by technology transfer and governmental efforts at energy conservation, all of which require financial support. However, policies at poverty allieviation need to take priority.
The paper argues that this is because it is not the developing countries that contribute to the high rates of emissions. Rather, it is the low rate of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from developing countries that have made it possible to sustain the very high patterns of energy consumption in the industrialised countries, that needs attention.
The long abstract of this document can be downloaded from the OECD website here.
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