There’s been a lot of bad press lately about how India is clashing with Western countries, including the US and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, over greenhouse gas emissions. Although there are a lot of challenges ahead in getting China and India and other developing countries to forge a good treaty in December, this article should dispel the notion India is not concerned and is sitting on its hands. Reposted below.
India is doing a great deal on climate change: Saran
Rajender Singh Negi, OneWorld South Asia
17 July 2009
New Delhi: OneWorld Foundation India organised a day-long Consultative Dialogue on “India’s Climate Responsive Roadmap for Development” at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on July 16.
The purpose of the consultation was to build a multi-stakeholder dialogue among members of civil society, business, academia, media and government, “for a conscientious approach to India’s climate responsive roadmap”, said Naimur Rahman, Director of OneWorld Foundation India, and to urge the government to adopt a more people-centric approach in dealing with the challenges of climate change – both at the national level and at international negotiations.
“This is an important first step towards highlighting intrastate equity issues within climate change discourse while supporting Indian government’s position for a more equitable framework in global negotiations,” he added.
Overriding priorities
Delivering the valedictory address, Shyam Saran, Special Envoy to Prime Minister on Climate Change, said that those who thought that India was not serious about the issue of climate change were “completely off the mark”.
He underlined the fact that India had been already doing a great deal on the issue of climate change and would do whatever it could taking into account the fact that economic and social development and poverty reduction were also the overriding priorities for the country. He added: “We will do whatever we can within the limitations of our resources.”
He also talked about the government’s effort in bringing about a gradual shift from reliance on fossil fuel to renewable sources of energy. “The kind of things that you need to do in terms of energy security are precisely the things that you need to do to deal with climate change,” he clarified.
In that he made a particular mention of the promotion of solar energy in the years to come. “We have now finalised a solar energy document and when it is announced, you will see it is very ambitious in scope; it has a very strong R&D component…to really give a punch to the promotion of solar energy.” (more…)