By IANS,
New Delhi : India Monday announced the setting up of a high-level expert group to assess the impact of economic growth on environment.
“We are setting up a high-level expert group under Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge to provide a roadmap for green national account and by 2015 we will calculate our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) after taking into account environmental impacts,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.
The group will also include economists Nitin Desai, Vijay Kelkar and Kirit Parikh.
Ramesh also released an interim report on ‘Low carbon strategies for inclusive growth’ along with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The minister said the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) will focus on high growth inclusive of low carbon emission.
“The expert group will soon start to make what are the environmental and ecological implications of high GDP growth on ecology and biodiversity,” he said.
The minister said the country has to look for low carbon pathways without compromising the required 8 to 9 percent growth.
“I fully endorse the view of Jairam Ramesh that growth should be sustainable and it is desirable that we should reduce emission intensity and emission intensity of energy,” said Ahluwalia.
India has announced cutting down its emission intensity by 20-25 percent of GDP by 2020 to reach the 2005-level.