India-Climate Change-PM
Climate Change is a global challenge and it can only be successfully overcome through a global, collaborative and cooperative effort, said Dr. Manmohan Singh Monday in New Delhi.
"India is prepared to play its role as a responsible member of the international community and makes its own contribution. "We are already doing so in the multilateral negotiations taking place under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change", said India's prime minister while releasing the National Action Plan on Climate Change in New Delhi today.
Hoping for the effective outcome from the action plan, Dr. Singh said: "Every citizen of this planet must have an equal share of the planetary atmospheric space. Adding that long-term convergence of per capita emissions is, therefore, the only equitable basis for a global compact on climate change.
The prime minister declared that despite India's developmental imperatives, per capita GHG emissions will not exceed the per capita GHG emissions of the developed industrialized countries. This should be testimony enough, if one was needed, of the sincerity of purpose and the sense of responsibility we bring to the global task on hand.
The National Action Plan owes its appearance to the wisdom, expertise and dedication of a large number of people. The Plan should be the subject of national debate. It will evolve and improve through a much wider interaction than has been possible so far.
Dr. Singh recalled India's Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi's sagacious message not only to the people of India, but to the world at large: "The earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all people, but will never have enough to serve their greed. This is the spirit which must underlie any strategy for sustainable development." Meanwhile, Prime Minister's Special Envoy Shyam Saran said India will evolve a strategy to shift from the fossil fuel emanating carbon to the clean energy.
He said the strategy will also include a shift from the depleting and non-renewable sources of energy to the renewable forms of energy where the solar component will be the key. He said the action plan will guide not only the government but all sections of society apart from seeking international collaboration on climate change. END 2160**1412
