Amid mixed reactions to the Copenhagen Accord to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said there was a need for an “informed and rational” debate to understand effects of global warming which has far greater consequences in India.“Ecological devastation of whatever cause or origin will have far greater consequences in India than in the West.“We need to recognize our own reality and have an informed and rational debate on what is in our enlightened self—interest,” he said at the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Award function.Dr. Singh said sometimes he wondered whether the country should follow the same unsustainable path the industrialised countries had taken to develop and modernise their societies.Noting that he was in Copenhagen for the climate change Summit last week, the Prime Minister said “we are working hard to build a global consensus on solutions that address the needs of the poor along with the needs of our planet and of all humanity“.Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, he said the humanity’s approach to climate change and other global challenges has to be need-based not greed-based.The Copenhagen Accord to tackle climate change has received with sharp criticism and praise from experts and political parties mixed in the country.
The Hindu, December 21, 2009
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