Thaindian News

Kolkata, Dec 22 (IANS) Spiritual guru Sohom Baba, one of the UN appointed observers at the recently concluded climate summit at Durban, South Africa, Thursday called for imposing carbon tax on the industrial sector in a phased manner.

“A carbon tax can be introduced on the industrial sector in a phased manner. With studies predicting increase in carbon emissions in the country, through tax sufficient funds can be created for fighting climate change and introduction of cleaner technologies,” Sohom Baba said here.

He also said that carbon pricing will act as an incentive for the industry to invest in clean energy sources.

Stating that global warming can result in submerging of hundreds islands in India, he said the only way out was afforestation.

“Research needs to be conducted on how many trees are to be planted in India and globally in order to reduce the temperature worldwide by 1-2 degree Celsius. India needs to initiate her own tree planting fund within the country,” he said.

He called upon investors to venture into renewable power sources.

“We have a rich resource of over 2,000 natural and 65,000 man-made lakes. If even one percent of the water surface is used for floating photo-voltaic projects, the generation potential would be about 3,260 MW,” he said.

“The corporate hubs can penetrate into this sphere and with central and state subsidies they can set up plants to tap the abundant energy lying untapped,” he added.

He also urged the government to “carefully handle” the issue of foreign direct investment to protect the country from greenhouse gas emissions as giant corporates from developed countries were setting up units in the country which was increasing the emissions.