Indian target may help negotiations The Indian target to curb emissions growth is a positive step that will help the climate negotiations, says Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. The move increases pressure on developed countries, says climate expert. Marianne Bom 04/12/2009 15:50 The Indian offer to reduce its carbon intensity “will certainly help the negotiations process and is something India should be doing for external and, more importantly, for internal reasons,” says Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the scientific Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, IPCC. Environmental organisations also regard India’s recent offer as an important step, according to Bloomberg. “These targets are a good, positive step toward quantification of India’s action on climate change on the eve of the crucial Copenhagen conference,” says Vinuta Gopal, Climate Campaign Manager for Greenpeace India. “We hope that this will be a strong step in moving toward a low-carbon sustainable model of development since the targets will be met through the use of better and more efficient technology,” says Ravi Singh, Head of WWF-India. India this week offered to reduce its emissions intensity by 25 percent per unit of gross domestic product from 2005 to 2020, meaning that emissions will increase, but dependency on fossil fuels will decline. Last week China also set targets to reduce its carbon intensity. Both nations still reject to accept binding emission targets as part of a global climate agreement. Prodipto Ghosh, a climate expert at The Energy and Resources Institut, in New Delhi, tells Bloomberg that the Chinese and Indian moves put “enormous pressure on the developed countries, in particular the US to get their act together.” Ghosh called for developed countries to come up with ambitious targets that “are clearly understood by science.” IPCC recommends that developed countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial temperatures.