India praises Japan, China critical of US in climate action

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday praised China and Japan for providing global leadership in tackling climate change but said President Obama's speech at the UN summit was "inspirational" but short on specific pledges of US action.

Japan's new minister Yukio Hatoyama, told the summit that the world's second largest economy would cut emissions by 25% by 2020 compared with the 1990 level, a far more ambitious goal than the previous Japanese government's 8%.

"I think the Japanese prime minister was very bold and he made a very specific commitment," said Ramesh.

Ramesh is increasingly turning to Japan for technological help in tackling India's climate challenge. He held a bilateral a meeting with Japanese officials in New York on the sidelines of the UN summit.

"Japan is the leading technology player. We are now building new power plants which will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions with Japan's help," said Ramesh, adding that India's first super-critical power plant is using Japanese Toshiba technology.

India and China will also be holding a workshop in Delhi on October 21 to find common ground in tackling climate change. "We are thinking of ways of establishing an agreement for having a continuous dialogue on issues related to climate change," said Ramesh.

India may want to take a leaf out of China's playbook on simple measures that can make a difference to the environment.

"It's not widely known in the rest of the world but China in each of the last two years has planted two and half times more trees than the entire rest of the world put together," said environmental activist Al Gore on Tuesday.

Obama said the US was committed to act, but he offered no new proposals. A US climate bill is stuck in the Senate, which many see as key to reaching a deal in Copenhagen in December to forge a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out at the end of 2012.

"We may not take on binding targets internationally but whatever we do domestically must have some degree of credibility," said Ramesh.

With Japan and the European Union all getting into the game, the US is also scrambling to woo India as it prepares to build out clean energy infrastructure. The US-India Business Council (USIBC) is bringing US energy companies to India on October 26-30 to showcase their latest green technologies. 

"India has made important domestic commitments to deploy low-carbon-technologies," said USIBC director Ted Jones. "These commitments will be met only with broad private-sector participation, and that represents massive opportunities for US trade and investment."