Yahoo News 18 Aug 09;
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged India must tread a greener path on Tuesday, even as he blamed rich nations for expecting developing countries to pay for decades of environmental neglect.
"Our growth strategy can be and should be innovative and different," Singh told a meeting of state environment ministers in New Delhi.
"We can and we must walk a different road, an environment-friendly road."
India requires new technology to offset "multiple environmental crises," including drought, water shortages and pollution, he added.
India's carbon emissions are among the world's highest and it has been criticised for refusing to accept binding emission cuts as part of a new international climate treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol.
India argues that its per capita emissions are very low -- the average Indian produces one tonne of carbon dioxide per year to the average American's 20 tonnes.
It also insists that it is unfair for developing countries to be penalised for centuries of polluting industrial activity by wealthier nations.
"In dealing with the challenge of climate change and environmental degradation we face the unfair burden of past mistakes not of our making," Singh said.
"But, as we go forward in the march of development we have the opportunity not to repeat those past mistakes."
India and fellow emerging market heavyweight China have consistently opposed binding carbon emission reductions, arguing that countries such as the United States should first present sufficient targets of their own.
India Must Invest In Green Technology: PM Singh
Krittivas Mukherjee, PlanetArk 19 Aug 09;
NEW DELHI - India's prime minister said on Tuesday the country must invest in its own environmentally friendly technologies, the latest in myriad pledges from one of the world's biggest polluters to fight climate change.
Manmohan Singh's comments underlined how India was seeking to undercut demands by rich nations for it to do more to curb carbon emissions. New Delhi has constantly resisted emissions targets, saying it will take its own unilateral action to cut pollution.
Global negotiations for a new U.N. agreement on climate change are stuck on the question of how much cash or technology rich nations will provide the poorer countries.
Singh's comments also signaled that India, the world's fourth-largest polluter, was willing to put in money to develop expensive clean technologies to supplement what it might get from rich countries.
"Our growth strategy can be different. It must be different," the prime minister said, referring to the western world's decades of industrialization that is blamed for climate change.
He said India's energy use will rise sharply in the coming decades as it tries to lift a multitude out of poverty, but stressed a different development path must be walked.
"For this we need access to new technologies that are already available with developed countries. We must also make our own investments in new environment-friendly technologies," he told a national conference on environment and forests in New Delhi.
India has already announced several steps to fight global warming, such as ramping up solar power investment, expanding forest cover and bringing in domestic energy efficiency trading.
"In dealing with the challenge of climate change and environmental degradation we face the unfair burden of past mistakes not of our making," Singh said.
"However, as we go forward in the march of development we have the opportunity not to repeat those mistakes."
With about 500 million people, or about half the population lacking access to electricity and relying on dirty coal to expand the power grid, India's booming economy has huge potential to leap-frog to a low-carbon future.
But it says it needs a little hand-holding by rich countries to keep it on the right path.
(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Alex Richardson)
