印度政府拒绝减少温室气体排放

In a blow to American hopes of reaching an international deal to fight global warming, India’s new environment minister said Wednesday that his country would not offer a plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a climate summit next year in Paris.

印度新任环境部长周三表示，在明年的巴黎气候峰会之前，他的国家不会提交减排温室气体的方案，这对美国想达成一项应对全球变暖的国际协议的希望是个打击。

The minister, Prakash Javadekar, said in an interview that his government’s first priority was to alleviate poverty and improve the nation’s economy, which he said would necessarily involve an increase in emissions through new coal-powered electricity and transportation. He placed responsibility for what scientists call a coming climate crisis on the United States, the world’s largest historic greenhouse gas polluter, and dismissed the idea that India would make cuts to carbon emissions.

环境部长普拉卡什·雅瓦德卡尔(Prakash Javadekar)在接受采访时说，印度政府的首要任务是消除贫困，提高本国经济水平，他说，这必定会涉及新的燃煤发电和运输，从而增加排放。他把科学家称之为即将到来的气候危机归咎于美国，美国在历史上一直是世界上最大的温室气体排放国，他还表示对印度将减少碳排放量的说法不屑一提。

“What cuts?” Mr. Javadekar said. “That’s for more developed countries. The moral principle of historic responsibility cannot be washed away.” Mr. Javadekar was referring to an argument frequently made by developing economies — that developed economies, chiefly the United States, which spent the last century building their economies while pumping warming emissions into the atmosphere — bear the greatest responsibility for cutting pollution.

“什么减排？”雅瓦德卡尔问道。“那是更发达国家的事儿。历史责任的道义原则不能被冲淡。”雅瓦德卡尔指的是发展中的经济体经常用的一个论点，即发达经济体，主要是美国，对减排负有最大的责任，那些国家用上个世纪建设了自己的经济，同时向大气层排放了大量的温室气体。

Mr. Javadekar said that government agencies in New Delhi were preparing plans for India’s domestic actions on climate change, but he said they would lead only to a lower rate of increase in carbon emissions. It would be at least 30 years, he said, before India would likely see a downturn.

雅瓦德卡尔说，新德里的政府机构正在准备印度应对气候变化的国内行动计划，但他表示，计划只会让碳排放量增长的速度放慢。他说，至少需要30年的时间，印度才可能会看到排放量的下降。

“India’s first task is eradication of poverty,” Mr. Javadekar said, speaking in a New York hotel suite a day after a United Nations climate summit. “Twenty percent of our population doesn’t have access to electricity, and that’s our top priority. We will grow faster, and our emissions will rise.”

“印度的首要任务是消除贫困，”雅瓦德卡尔说，他是在联合国气候峰会后的第二天，在纽约的一个酒店套房里说这番话的。“我国有百分之二十的人口还没有用上电，这是我们的首要任务。我们将更快地发展，我们的排放量将上升。”

India is the world’s third-largest carbon polluter, behind China and the United States, and Mr. Javadekar’s comments are a first indication of the direction of the environmental policies of the new prime minister, Narendra Modi, the author of a 2011 e-book, “A Convenient Action.” Although the book, a response to the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” presents the moral case for action on climate change, Mr. Javadekar said that coal, the world’s top source of carbon pollution, would provide more than half of India’s power for the foreseeable future.

印度是世界第三大碳排放国，仅次于中国和美国。雅瓦德卡尔的这番话首次表明了新任总理纳伦德拉·莫迪的环境政策指向，莫迪曾在2011年撰写了一本名为《不费事的行动》(A Convenient Action)的电子书。该书是对影片《难以忽视的真相》(An Inconvenient Truth)的回应，虽然书中提出了对气候变化采取行动的道义理由，但雅瓦德卡尔说，在可预见的未来，印度一半以上的能源将来自煤。煤是世界上碳污染的最主要来源。

In coming decades, as India works to provide access to electricity to more than 300 million people, its emissions are projected to double, surpassing those of the United States and China.

在未来的几十年中，印度将努力让3亿以上的人用上电，该国的碳排放量预计将翻一番，超过美国和中国的排放量。

As President Obama and Chinese leaders have signaled that they intend to enact policies to decrease their emissions levels in the coming years, cooperation from India on a global climate treaty is crucial. Without India, it will be more difficult to reach a lasting agreement.

随着奥巴马总统和中国领导人都表示，他们打算制定在未来几年中减少本国排放量的政策，印度在全球气候条约上的合作变得至关重要。没有印度的参与，达成持久的协议将更加困难。

As demand for electricity surges in India, Mr. Modi has said he plans to tackle climate change by increasing renewable power sources like wind and solar — an effort that has won applause from international environmental groups. Mr. Javadekar said his government was also focusing on increasing investment in railways and public transport, in order to slow the growth in demand for cars.

由于印度的电力需求激增，莫迪曾表示，他打算通过增加可再生能源、如风能和太阳能的使用，来应对气候变化，这个努力赢得了国际环保组织的赞扬。雅瓦德卡尔说，印度政府也在加大对铁路和公共交通的投资，以减缓对小汽车需求的增长。

In addition, he said the Modi administration was working on efforts to replant forests and create new wildlife refuge areas to protect tigers. “The new motto is, development without destruction,” Mr. Javadekar said.

除此之外，他说，莫迪政府正在植树造林、以及为保护老虎设立新的野生动物保护区等方面做出努力。雅瓦德卡尔说，“我们的新口号是，不用破坏的发展。”

A number of recent scientific reports have concluded that carbon emissions must peak within the next few years, and then decline, if the global atmosphere is to avoid an average temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius, a tipping point at which scientists project an unavoidable future of rising sea levels, increased droughts and flooding and other catastrophic impacts.

最近几篇科学报告的结论是，要让全球大气避免平均上升2摄氏度的话，碳排放量必须在未来几年内达到峰值，然后下降，如果过了这个转折点，科学家们预测，未来将不可避免地出现海平面上升、干旱和洪水等灾难增加，以及其他灾难性的影响。

Mr. Obama has pushed for policies to lower emissions in the United States, and on Tuesday, the vice prime minister of China, Zhang Gaoli, said his country would try to reach a peak level of emissions “as soon as possible.”

奥巴马已开始推行减少美国碳排放量的政策，中国国务院副总理张高丽在周二表示，中国将争取碳排放总量“尽早”达到峰值。