May 11: China has now become a taboo word for a clearly defensive minister of environment and forests (MoEF) Jairam Ramesh.
“I am not going to speak a single word on China,” a visibly chastened Mr Ramesh told journalists as he entered the Ashoka Hotel banquet hall to release a report on India’s Greenhouse Gas Emission 2007.
After having received a severe dressing down from both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his controversial remarks in Beijing, the minister was in no mood to stoke a fresh controversy. “If you have come here to get a comment on China then you can leave,” he warned persistent journalists.
What Mr Ramesh cannot deny and what the report only serves to confirm is that India is the first non-Annex 1 country to publish a report highlighting that the emission of China and the US remained four times higher in 2007 than that of India.
At the same time, the emissions intensity of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had declined by a significant 30 per cent during 1994-2007 and was expected to go down by another 25 per cent by 2020.
The report put together by 80 scientists from 17 institutions provides details on India’s greenhouse gases emitted from the energy and industry sector, agriculture, waste and Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF).
For the first time, the levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitroous oxide have been quantified. Sectoral breakups include 1,100.06 million tonnes of CO2 due to fossil fuel combustion in electricity generation, transport.
Commercial establishments, agriculture/fisheries. Industrial activities emitted 412.55 million tonnes of C02 while agriculture emitted 334.41 million tonnes.
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Northeast angry over remarks
MANOJ ANAND
Guwahati
May 11: Minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh may not be scared of the Chinese claim on Arunachal Pradesh but there is hardly any one willing to buy his theory of treating China as a friendly nation.
The first angry reaction against Mr Ramesh’s remark on China that came from the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh has now started spilling down to other northeastern states which are worried over China’s mega plan to divert the natural course of river Brahamaputra. Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta that it does not intend to disturb the natural course of the Brahamaputra.