150 million rich produced 4.5 times more carbon emissions than the 800 million poor Indians

Greenpeace calls for pollution tax on India’s 150 million rich

France24.com, 13 Nov 2007

India’s wealthy consumers, who make up a fraction of its 1.1 billion population, are fuelling the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and should be required to pay extra tax, an environmental watchdog said on Tuesday.

Some 150 million Indians, splurging on luxury goods and air travel, produced 4.5 times more carbon emissions than the 800 million poor, according to a Greenpeace report entitled “Hiding Behind The Poor”.

The government should not use its average low carbon per capita emissions as a reason not to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released, said Greenpeace India chief, G. Ananthapadmanabhan.

A “relatively small wealthy class (of) … over 150 million Indians are emitting above the sustainable limit which needs to be maintained to restrict global temperature rise to below two degree centigrade,” he told reporters.

New Delhi has refused to accept caps on carbon dioxide emissions, saying doing so would hurt economic growth needed to pull millions out of poverty.

The government has also said that its per capita greenhouse gas emissions are low, accounting for 23 percent of the global average.

India’s position on UN climate change negotiations would be strengthened if New Delhi made the rich pay a special tax for higher carbon emissions, Ananthapadmanabhan said.

“India has always asked the developed nations to reduce its carbon emissions and allow developing nations the carbon space to grow,” he said. “We would be in a stronger position to point fingers if we acted ourselves.”

Besides the well-off, defined as those earning above 8,000 rupees (205 dollars) a month, India’s coal-based thermal power plants add to carbon dioxide emissions, the report said.

The Greenpeace findings were based on a survey of 819 families belonging to seven different income groups across India.

 

Millions breathe cancer-causing air in India: report

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Millions in India breathe air loaded with cancer-causing chemicals and toxic gases present at levels that are thousands of times higher than permissible limits, an independent report said on Saturday.

India, one of the most polluted countries in the world, does not even have a standard for many harmful chemicals and gases, and thus no monitoring nor regulation for them, the report said.

The study by the Community Environmental Monitors (CEM), an independent environmental and health agency, is India’s first comprehensive national survey of ambient air that based its findings on a two-year survey carried out in 13 locations.

“As India is poised to nearly double its industrial capacity in the coming years, our nation is pathetically behind in terms of its infrastructure to safeguard its environment or the health of people from air pollution,” said CEM’s Shweta Narayan.

The study found that millions of Indians in cities and villages were exposed to at least 45 dangerous chemicals, including 13 carcinogens, some of which were present at levels 32,000 times higher than globally accepted standard.

Last month, the World Bank said pollution was growing rapidly in India and China because of inefficient investment in energy.

India is mainly dependent on coal for its energy, but has about 15 nuclear power plants and is under pressure to increase energy production to meet a furious pace of industrialization.

“Air pollution monitoring and regulation is primitive, and the world’s fourth-largest economy has no standards for some of the most toxic and commonly found air pollutants,” said Narayan.

The samples were taken from residential areas and public thoroughfares in or near industrial areas, effluent discharge channels, smoldering garbage dumps and toxic waste facilities.

The chemicals found targeted virtually every system in the human body – eyes, central nervous system, skin and respiratory system, liver, kidneys, blood, cardiovascular system, reproductive system, the report said.

To reduce air pollution, the Indian government is actively encouraging the use of compressed natural gas by vehicles — a move that has resulted in a few cleaner cities — and piped natural gas by households.

But the country has refused cuts to greenhouse gases imposed by the Kyoto Protocol, saying such a cap would hamper its furious pace of industrialization.

India is exempt from the mandatory cuts because, like China, it is considered a developing nation.

June 3, 2006 , Krittivas Mukherjee, © Reuters