Following is the text of the speech of the Prime
Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the high level segment of
the Eighth Session of Conference of the parties to the UN framework
convention on climate change, here today :
"India is privileged to host the Eighth Conference
of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
I welcome our foreign guests to this land of rich cultural and
natural heritage.
Climate Change has emerged as one of the most
serious environmental concerns of our times. It is a global phenomenon
with diverse local impacts. In 1992, we adopted the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Convention has provided us with a sound basis
for global cooperation. It reflects the consensus that addressing
the challenge of climate change is an integral part of the need
to achieve sustainable development to create a better world for
all our peoples -- a world free of hunger, poverty and disease.
At the Millennium Summit of the UN, we adopted
a plan of implementation that set the goal of reducing global
poverty by half by 2015. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development
at Johannesburg just two months ago, we recognized that poverty
eradication, changing consumption and production patterns, protecting
and managing the natural resource base for economic and social
development are essential requirements for sustainable development.
The world has understood the imperative of diversifying
energy supply, substantially increasing the share of renewable
energy in the total energy mix, and enhancing the use of energy
conservation technologies.
India has always argued that strengthening of
global cooperation is central to any effort to address global
environmental problems. We ratified the Convention in 1993. This
year, we took a step further by acceding to the Kyoto Protocol.
And we feel privileged to be hosting this important conference,
ten years after Rio.
India is deeply committed to the goals of sustainable
development. We have one of the most active renewable energy programmes
in the world. It involves the public and private sectors, local
communities and households. We are among the leading nations in
wind power production. We have vigorously promoted the use of
solar energy in both thermal and electricity generation modes.
We are steadily increasing the share of hydropower and natural
gas in our energy mix. We are promoting various energy efficiency
measures in the industrial, commercial, governmental and domestic
sectors. In this regard, we welcome the operationalisation of
the Clean Development Mechanism.
While coal shall continue to be the most important
source of energy in India in the foreseeable future, we are promoting
many technological innovations in this sector to enhance efficiency
and reduce its environmental impacts.
We have to increase the share of advanced energy
technologies in our energy mix. Our energy policies are ensuring
rapid progress towards market-determined energy pricing.
India accords high priority to conservation of
forests and wildlife for long-term ecological and environmental
security. The participation of local communities is ensured through
the ‘Joint Forest Management’ programme. I am happy to say that
this has helped to increase our forest cover significantly.
While our economy has been among the fastest
growing in the world in the last two decades, the major part of
this growth is due to the service sectors, including information
technology, bio-technology, and media and entertainment.
As the cumulative effect of all these policies
and measures, the energy intensity of our GDP has been declining
steadily.
Friends, India’s contribution – indeed,
the contribution of all the developing countries -- to greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere is very little, compared
to that of the industrialized countries. This will be the case
for several decades to come. Tragically, however, developing countries
will bear a disproportionate burden of the adverse impacts of
climate change.
Hence, it follows that there is a need to pay
adequate attention to the concerns of developing countries on
vulnerability and adaptation issues in the Convention process.
Food and nutritional well being are priority
issues for all of us. Agricultural sustainability is one of the
key areas related to adaptation. Water conservation is another.
Weather-related economic losses and deaths have grown significantly
over the last few decades. There is a need for strengthening the
capacity of developing countries in coping with extreme weather
events, which are increasing in frequency and severity due to
climate change.
There have been suggestions recently that a process
should commence to enhance commitments of developing countries
on mitigating climate change beyond that included in the Convention.
This suggestion is misplaced for several reasons.
First, our per capita Green House Gas emissions
are only a fraction of the world average, and an order of magnitude
below that of many developed countries. This situation will not
change for several decades to come. We do not believe that the
ethos of democracy can support any norm other than equal per capita
rights to global environmental resources.
Second, our per capita incomes are again a small
fraction of those in industrialized countries. Developing countries
do not have adequate resources to meet their basic human needs.
Climate change mitigation will bring additional strain to the
already fragile economies of the developing countries, and will
affect our efforts to achieve higher GDP growth rates to eradicate
poverty speedily.
Third, the GHG intensity of our economies at
purchasing power parity is low and, in any case, not higher than
that of industrialized countries. Thus, the assertion that developing
countries generate GHG emissions, which are unnecessary for their
economies, is not based on facts.
Friends, India’s 5000-year-old culture
enjoins us to look at the whole world and all that it sustains
– living and non-living -- as a family, coexisting in a symbiotic
manner. I do hope that this essential principle of sustainable
development would inform the deliberations of this conference
and help all the Parties, which have assembled here, to make progress
in responding to this challenge.
I wish you well in your deliberations."
