PM launches Action Plan on Climate Change, says sun is the solution

New Delhi, Jun 30 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today launched India's National Action Plan on Climate Change, committing the country to ecologically sustainable development, gradual shift to renewable energy sources, and promising to the world that the country's per capita carbon emissions would not exceed those of developed industrialised world.

The Action Plan, which says that shift to solar enery will be core of the strategy to meet the challenge of climate channge, was unveiled by Dr Singh in the presence of experts and senior Cabinet colleagues including Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr R Chidambaram, Special Envoy of the Prime Minister for Climate Change and Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The work on the Action Plan was started in 2007 when the fourth assessment report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel, headed by Dr R K Pachauri, made it clear in no uncertain terms that time was running out for the planet unless drastic and urgent measures were taken to arrest the climate change caused by global warming due to human activities.

IPCC Report had said already enough amount of these gases had been emitted in the atmosphere to cause a rise of around two degrees by 2050.

In view of the immediacy of the issue, a high-level Council on Climate Change headed by the Prime Minister himself had been set up to draw up the country's startegy to meet the challenge of both mitigation and adapatation to the inevitable climate change.

The plan has been divided into eight National Missions which are related to Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Conservation of Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Eco System, Creating a Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and creation of a Strategic Knowledge plateform for Climate Change.

The Action Plan was eagerly awaited by the environment activists, experts and the industry not only at home but also abroad as India along with China is one of the countries whose growth is powered mainly by energy based on fossil fuels burning of which is a major cause of the increase in carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

In his remarks on the occasion, the Prime Minister said climate change was a global challenge and it could be met through a global, collaborative and cooperative effort.

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