Even as India and China — with their steady growth trajectories —are considered the new bad boys in carbon dioxide emissions, a new analysis points out that the poorest Indians emit less CO2 than the poorest Americans.

Putting together income percentile data (income patterns data) from the World Bank and carbon emissions data from the World Resources Institute, Washington, the Centre for Science and Environment in an analysis has found that the richest Indians emit as little as 4-6 tonnes of Carbon dioxide per year — less than, or on a par with the poorest Americans.

The trends from the data for both countries show a positive co-relation between growth in income and growth in carbon. But even the super rich in India — meaning the top 2 per cent in the income distributio — emit between 4.6 tonnes and 6.8 tonnes CO2 annually. The poorest 10 per cent of the American population has a higher ran—e ¿ between 4.3 and 8 tonnes annually.

A larger, more representative Indian mass — the richest 10 per cent of the population emits between 3.4 and 5 tonnes CO2 annually. In comparison, the richest 10 per cent US population emits more than ten times: between 52 and 69 tonnes.

The richest two per cent of the US population emit in triple figures — between 73 and 111 tonnes CO2.

This refutes the argument that India is defending its so-called lack of commitments behind India’s poor. Developed countries and even officials from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have called on India and China to take emission cuts as they are both growing economies and looked at as countries whose emission rates are growing. India has been accused of citing that it has a huge poor population in defence of not taking emission cuts.

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