India has released its National Action Plan on Climate Change. The document reaffirms India’s commitment to strong and rapid economic growth, though it will also focus on eight “national missions” — such as sustainability, energy efficiency, solar initiatives, increased climate-science research, and the like. It also notes some market-oriented initiatives recently enacted – and further ones planned — to increase competitiveness, inefficiencies, and innovation.
India can’t help but mention “the strong positive correlation between energy use and human development.” Hear, hear. They promise to nonetheless keep their per-capita rate of emissions below “developed countries,” although developed countries do not have a uniform per-capita emission any more than they play a uniform role in the global economy,
The document is in a PDF format that is non-searchable — I mean, outside of actually reading it – which will surely limit the media’s ability to report on it.
I’m kidding of course; as I have documented, the Kyoto media rely on friendly press releases for their stories (in “Home of Le Whopper,” covering COP-11 for TechCentralStation, a piece no longer available).
Their coverage so far has emphasized how India now promises to “do something.” This line of argument aims to rebuff the U.S. claiming to reasonably continue avoid “binding” international promises, on top of its world-leading domestic achievements at combining economic growth with a reduction in the growth rate of GHG emission. OK, so they don’t phrase it that way.
The document is in fact more notable for reaffirming its refusal of any Kyoto-style emission rationing, or cap. India’s Liberty Institute has summarized its contents here.
But wait, there’s more. Here’s what you certainly will not read in the coverage:
India rejects IPCC claims!!!
To wit:
“No firm link between the documented [climate] changes described below and warming due to anthropogenic climate change has yet been established.”
That reads ambiguously, possibly stating that, yes, man is warming the planet but we can’t pin (other) climate changes on him. But reading further, which the media rarely does, makes clear that the climate changes that cannot be attributed to AGW include surface temperature, rainfall, extreme weather events, rise in sea level, impacts on Himalayan glaciers.
Good for you, India.