US needs to change lifestyle to save planet: India

Betwa Sharma

United Nations, Sep 22 (PTI) Ahead of the Climate Change
Summit here, India has underlined the need for the United
States to embark on a "lifestyle change" to save the planet as
New Delhi said it was on the path to unilateral voluntary
mitigation measures by 2020 to combat climate change.

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who is in New
York to attend the Climate Change Summit, told an audience
here that India was on the path to unilateral voluntary
mitigation measures by 2020.

These would include mandatory fuel efficiency standards,
renewable energy initiatives, clean coal technologies, and
lower methane farming, he said.

Ramesh and climate change expert Rajendra Pachauri
underlined the need need for the US to bring about a
"lifestyle change" to to combat climate change.

"In terms of lifestyle changes the time has come that we
should not be shy about raising this issue," said Pachauri,
the chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

He said it was time for "major changes" in our value
systems. "There is a ground swell of public opinion also that
some major changes have to be made in value systems," Pachauri
said.

"If it is affecting the rest of the planet then it should
be up for negotiation," the scientist underlined.

The Indian Minister suggested it was wrong to blame India
for the deadlock on the global climate change accord.

"It beats me how as to how a country that accounts for
less than five percent of the world's greenhouse gases (India)
is painted as the one that is preventing the deal in a country
that accounts for 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gases,"
Ramesh noted.

He called the Waxman-Markey Bill, which was passed by the
US House of Representative, a step forward because it takes on
quantitative emission cuts by 2020.

"The US has entered the international environmental
arena," he said. The Bill, however, still has a steep climb to
pass the US Senate.

Pachauri underlined the need for the Obama administration
to take on a set of executive steps even while the Bill is
pending. "I think they can do a lot in terms of promoting
renewable energy," he said.

"Between now and Copenhagen they could take a lot of
action, which will be an important message for the Congress."

Ramesh said the voluntary mitigation measures by India
would soon be worked into legislation.

"We are not part of the problem but we want to be part of
the solution," he stressed. PTI BS
JVN