In an endorsement of December's much-criticised Copenhagen Accord, the environment ministry in New Delhi said it had submitted plans to reduce emissions intensity by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.

India's proposal, first made in parliament in December ahead of the Copenhagen summit, came before a UN deadline on January 31 for nations to re-state their climate change policies.

In a statement late Saturday, India said its UN submission "clarified that its domestic mitigation actions will be entirely voluntary in nature and will not have a legally binding character."

The cut in emissions intensity means that each dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) in India -- a rapidly developing economy -- must generate 20 to 25 percent fewer emissions by 2020 compared to 2005.

India is part of a coalition including Brazil, China and South Africa which lobbied successfully at the Copenhagen meeting against any binding emissions caps.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh hailed the accord and said the country had emerged from the negotiations a winner.

But environmentalists condemned the failure to agree on any measures that would force countries to reduce emissions.

India -- one of the world's top-five carbon emitters in terms of volume -- has insisted that rich countries, which are responsible historically for global warming, should bear the burden of mitigating the future problem.

Only a handful of nations, including the United States, have submitted their papers ahead of the deadline to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

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Canada matches US carbon emissions target
Ottawa (AFP) Jan 31, 2010 - Canada has aligned itself with the United States in setting a 2020 carbon emissions target of 17 percent below 2005 levels, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Sunday.

The target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under last month's Copenhagen Accord was submitted to the United Nations on Saturday, two days after the United States announced its objective.

The summit had asked nations to report by January 31 whether they would associate themselves with the accord and join efforts to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose legal obligations run out at the end of 2012.

"This is in keeping with our commitment, as I indicated in the days leading up to Copenhagen and afterwards, to align our policies with those of our continental partner," Prentice told a press conference.

"We'll deal specifically with the oil sands, we'll deal specifically with all sources of emissions," he said.

"We know we can achieve that target, we're prepared to stand behind it and other countries will now have to do the same."

Environmentalists panned the plan, saying it would lead to a 2.5 percent increase in Canada's CO2 emissions from 1990 levels, in contrast to Ottawa's previous plan announced in 2006 to cut emissions by three percent.

"The new target will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions rather than reduce them," Greenpeace said in a statement. "This new target is thus even worse than the one previously adopted by Canada."

"Furthermore, Greenpeace has no reason to believe that the target, as mediocre as it is, will be met by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which reneged on its Kyoto Protocol obligations and allowed Canadian greenhouse gas emissions to rise."

Prentice said Canada wants a comprehensive and binding international treaty that builds on the framework agreement reached in Copenhagen and "that applies to all carbon emitters, including China and the United States."

In the meantime, he said Canada and the United States would harmonize their strategies and roll out piecemeal emissions cuts.

"In terms of motor vehicles, starting in 2011, we will have continental tailpipe emissions standards that will deal with carbon emissions for passenger vehicles," Prentice said.

"We're also moving forward on harmonization with air transport emissions, marine emissions, as well as those from heavy vehicles, all on a concerted continental basis."

The United States, long the industrial world's main holdout from climate change agreements, said Thursday it would cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming "in the range of 17 percent" by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

The European Union meanwhile has pledged to cut emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and agreed to raise its target to 30 percent if other large emitters pledge similar CO2 cuts.

earlier related report
US recommits to climate goals
Washington (AFP) Jan 28, 2010 - The United States Thursday officially told the United Nations it will cut carbon emissions, predicting Congress would move ahead on fighting climate change but pressing other countries to do likewise.

President Barack Obama's administration outlined US climate goals in a submission to the United Nations, which was requested of all nations by January 31 as part of the Copenhagen summit held last month.

The United States, long the industrial world's main holdout from climate change agreements, said it would cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming "in the range of 17 percent" by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

"The US submission reflects President Obama's continued commitment to meeting the climate change and clean energy challenge," US climate envoy Todd Stern said in a letter to Yvo de Boer, head of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Stern said that robust action "will strengthen our economy, enhance our national security and protect our environment."

However, Stern said that the US pledges were made "on the assumption" that major developed and developing nations would make similar submissions.

"We expect that all major economies will honor their agreement in Copenhagen to submit their mitigation targets or actions," he said.

The summit had asked nations to report by January 31 whether they would associate themselves with the accord and join efforts to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose legal obligations run out at the end of 2012.

The United States appears to be one of the first to formally submit its papers. The UNFCCC has indicated that it did not consider January 31 a strict deadline amid rancor around the world over how to battle rising temperatures.

The submission came hours after Obama made his first State of the Union address, where he urged a joint session of Congress to move ahead on climate legislation.

But Obama's Democratic Party last week suffered a stinging upset in which a Republican who opposes restrictions on carbon emissions won the seat held for decades by late liberal icon Ted Kennedy.

The Senate has yet to vote on climate legislation, which squeaked through the House of Representatives in June.

In the State of the Union address, Obama did not specifically ask the Senate to approve the House vision of a "cap-and-trade" system -- in which companies must curb emissions and have an economic incentive by trading credits.

Instead, Obama focused on building a green economy and supported nuclear power and offshore drilling for oil and gas -- measures opposed by many environmentalists but offered as a compromise to woo Republicans.

The two-week Copenhagen summit was marred by discord between wealthy nations and several developing countries, which have pressed for more action from nations historically responsible for climate change.

Only a handful of nations have submitted their papers to the UNFCCC including Bangladesh, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines and Samoa, according to a running list by the US Climate Action Network, which supports action against global warming.

However, other key players have indicated that they are in the process of submitting the papers.

The United States is the only major industrialized nation to shun the Kyoto Protocol. Former president George W. Bush argued that it was too costly and unfair by making no demands of fast-growing emerging economies such as China and India.

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