Pachauri calls for investing in public transport

New Delhi, Aug 10 (UNI) Chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) R K Pachauri has expressed concern over lack of adequate investment in public transport, and said it was must for reducing energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases.

''Moreover, we have to fashion a new pattern of development to make it sustainable, '' he said taking part in a programme on global warming, to be telecast by Doordarshan tonight.

''I am concerned that we have not been making investments in public transport. However, the National Action Plan on Climate Change launched recently has addressed the issue,'' he said.

Dr Pachauri said equitable growth along-with sustainability should be the model for the country.

''We have to stop blindly following the western model of development. We have to chose what is right for us in the Indian context,'' he said.

Dr Pachauri called for concentrating on adaptation measures in meeting the challenge of climate change, and on producing energy from renewable sources. He pointed out that the National Action Plan has placed special emphasis on renewable energy.

He also said the nations of the world must reach on agreement on reduction of emissions in 2009, as the time was running short for the planet.

However, another panelist environmentalist Vandana Shiva criticised the Action Plan, saying that it showed lack of understanding about the Indian situation and the traditional sustainable practices.

She also criticised the government subsidy for chemical fertiliser industry which ran into hundreds of crores, saying the promotion of fertilisers led to emission of nitrogen which was more lethal than Co2 for global temperature.

For both mitigation and adoptation, the people in rural India were doing the really needful, she stressed.

The traditional Indian knowledge and biodiversity has not been given due place in the National Action Plan for Climate Change, she said.

Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests Pradipto Ghosh, who has been on one of the panels of the committee that drew up the Action Plan, said Indian society has been by tradition sustainable and recycling and reuse formed an important part of the people's lifestyle, the best example of which was the 'Kabariwala' system.

He also sought to remove the ''misconception'' that Indian industry was very energy intensive. A survey has shown the situation very different from the one projected.

Mr Ravi Singh of the World Wildlife Fund(WWF) said India has to take a leadership role in meeting the challenge of climate change.

''We have very little time. Disaster is imminent, whoever might be responsible for emissions,'' he added.

Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology Dr T Ramasami, IMD scientist Ajay Tyagi, Dr Selvamurthy of the DRDO and Justice Bharuka also partcipated in the discussion.

UNI NAZ KK RK0910