Taking a big step forward in its action plan to deal with climate change, India has decided to make targeted reductions in its energy intensity during the next five-year plan period as a result of which it will be able to take on specific cuts in its carbon emissions by 2020.

Sources told The Indian Express that the government was moving to make sustainable low-carbon economic growth the central element of the 12th five-year plan that will cover the period 2012 to 2017.

Reducing energy intensity — which is the amount of energy consumed in generating one unit of GDP — is one of the most effective ways of cutting down on carbon emissions, especially for developing countries.

India already has a low energy intensity of about 0.15 kg of oil equivalent per dollar of GDP, which is at par with the best in the world. But New Delhi feels it can do even better and can reduce its energy intensity further to catch up with a handful of countries slightly ahead on this count.

But neither the targeted cuts in energy intensity nor the resulting reduction in carbon emissions would be internationally binding. As with the host of other measures on climate that the country has announced — on industry, transport, forestry, energy, buildings and agriculture — the action on energy intensity would be a purely domestic commitment.

Sources said the Planning Commission, on the express directives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had already started working on charting out a low-carbon growth path for the country for the next plan period.

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