NEW DELHI: India will make fuel efficiency standards mandatory for the transport sector from 2011 as part of a growing suite of measures to fight climate change, the country’s environment minister said on Wednesday.

India has recently announced steps to ramp up solar energy investment and preserve and rehabilitate forests ahead of a UN gathering in Copenhagen in December aimed at trying to win agreement on a broader pact to fight climate change.

“Two years from now we will have mandatory fuel efficiency standards for transport sector. The standard will be measured in terms of kilometres per litre,” Jairam Ramesh told reporters.

He said the transport sector contributed about 15 percent to total national emissions, a figure likely to rise to 25 percent by 2030 if steps such as fuel efficiency were not taken.

In a 2004 report to the United Nations, the last time India published detailed emissions data, the government said total greenhouse gas emissions were 1.228 billion tonnes, or about 1.3 tonnes per person, based on 1994 levels.

A new government-funded report said on Wednesday India’s emissions were expected to jump to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes in 2031, while per-capita emissions are estimated to rise to 2.1 tonnes by 2020 and 3.5 tonnes by 2030.

Ramesh said the government was trying to identify areas in the national action plan on global warming such as a mission on energy efficiency that could be made legally binding.

“We are doing a systematic exercise and I will tell you immediately that the most important legislative intervention that is going to come in the winter session of the parliament (in November) will be amendments in the Energy Conservation Act,” the minister said.

Energy efficiency is a key focus in India’s national climate change policy, unveiled last year and which lays out a roadmap to a green economy but doesn’t fix a target for curbing carbon emissions, something rich nations would like India and other developing countries to agree to.

The plan involves creating a market-based mechanism that would allow businesses using more energy than stipulated to compensate by buying energy certificates from those using less energy because of energy efficiency practices.

The government is setting up energy benchmarks for each industry sector. Companies that do not meet the benchmarks would have to buy these certificates under a reward and penalty system. The government says the efficiency mission would ensure an annual saving of 5 percent of India’s total energy consumption and a cut of about 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year from its annual emissions now.

Ramesh said the amendment to the Energy Conservation Act would be necessary to bring into effect the efficiency trading system. reuters

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