India is not historically responsible for climate change, but India is taking steps to reduce emission as a responsible country, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said on the eve of the fifth year of Paris Climate agreement.
“Climate change isn’t an overnight phenomenon. It has taken the last 100 years. Historically the USA has 25% of all emissions, Europe has 22% whereas China has 13% and India, only 3%. We are in no way responsible for this climate change,” Javadekar said.
Paris Climate Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015, by 196 parties. It became effective from November 4, 2016.
At present, India is contributing only 6.8 per cent of global emissions and per capita emission is only 1.9 tonnes per capita. In comparison, the emission of the United States os 13.5 per cent of the global emissions and per capita is 15.52 tonnes. China contributes 30 per cent to global emissions while the European Union including the UK contributes 8.7 per cent, the ministry said in its presentation.