on Wednesday discussed ways to push the climate change talks and
strengthen what looks like a weak declaration that may emerge from the
meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Thursday. Much of the
bilateral meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the G8
and G5 summits that lasted 45 minutes was devoted to climate change,
which is perhaps the most critical and divisive issue at the
conference. The Major Economies Forum is planning to give a major
political thrust to the talks, which will conclude at the end of the
year with the Copenhagen summit. Dr. Singh explained to Mr. Brown the
Indian perspective on climate change and also handed him a note
prepared in a question-and-answer form setting out the Indian
position. India expects the industrial nations to come out with a
stronger and specific commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
as well as the mechanisms to fund the adoption of green technologies
by the developing countries. In addition, it has sought the loosening
of the intellectual property regime to enable developing countries to
obtain green technology without paying high licensing fees. The Prime
Minister also suggested that India and the United Kingdom could
jointly take a leadership role in the development of green technology
projects. He invited the U.K. to participate actively in the New Delhi
conference organised by the United Nations that aims at the creation
of a global platform for climate-friendly technologies. After a brief
one-on-one conversation, the two leaders were joined by National
Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan, special envoy on climate change
Shyam Saran and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. This was their
second meeting this year – they met on April 1 on the sidelines of the
G20 summit in London.
The Hindu, July 9
No comments:
Post a Comment