The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan pushes convergence of per capita emissions

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Sunday, Oct 26, 2008
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Manmohan pushes convergence of per capita emissions

Siddharth Varadarajan

Cannot tackle climate change by perpetuating poverty

— PHOTO: PTI/Vijay Kumar Joshi

Looking forward: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who met German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a breakfast meeting in Beijing on Saturday exchanged views on bilateral ties and the raging global financial turmoil.

Beijing: In line with the National Action Plan on Climate Change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday made a renewed pitch for a global “operational strategy” aimed at equalising the amount of per capita greenhouse gas emissions from developed and developing countries.

Addressing a special session of the summit of the Asia Europe Meeting devoted to sustainable development, Dr. Singh said climate change was threatening the environment and the prospects for development and a holistic approach was needed to deal with the problem. “We cannot do so by perpetuating the poverty of the developing industries, or by preventing their industrialisation.” He said the principle of common but differentiated responsibility had to be the “cardinal principle of negotiations” in the search for pragmatic solutions within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Prime Minister added that the principle of convergence of percapita emissions of developing countries with advanced developed countries was “catching the imagination of the international community.” The world had to recognise that “each citizen of the world has equal entitlement to the global atmospheric space.”

Identifying the world’s dependence on fossil fuels as a cause of many problems, Dr. Singh said greater effort was needed to promote “clean and renewable sources of energy, including nuclear energy.”

Meeting of minds

In keeping with the grand theme of ASEM — the meeting of two large continents — the Prime Minister said a rapidly growing Asia had “proven capabilities as a provider of goods, services and knowledge” while the Europeans were “world leaders in the scientific, technological and financial areas.” The two continents, thus, had much to learn from each other. “We seek on this historic occasion a meeting of minds and of these complementarities to bring both stability and prosperity to our two continents and to the world at large.”

Intervening again at the working lunch at the end of the summit, Dr. Singh once again described ASEM as a “powerful forum to deal with global issues” and said the current preoccupation with the international financial crisis should not detract from the important task of the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goals set for 2015 were still far away “and few believe that those targets will be met.” Noting that the U.N. Secretary-General had been able to secure pledges of only $16 billion, the Prime Minister said this reflected the “unequal world we live in.” Far more energy was required if we were to meet the goals by 2015, he said, “rather than later discuss why we did not realise those goals.”

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