Mukherjee calls for concerted action plan to deal with climate change

New Delhi, Feb 5 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today called for a concerted action plan to deal with the threat of climate change.

Inaugurating the three-day Delhi sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here,ukherjee urged the developed countries to stick to their commitments on the reduction of green house gas emissions.

Mukherjee asserted that India is committed to sustainable development and reiterated New Delhi's stand that developed countries must play their role in addressing this pressing issue as most of polluting gasses are emitted by them.

He further said that India has shown commitment to the concept of sustainable development and is ready to play its role in the future.

Noting that poverty eradication and rapid economic development have remained India's priority, he said environment protection cannot be isolated from the general issue of development.

"For us, the concept of sustainable development must include needs of the people for health, nutrition, education, housing with a view to eradicate poverty and provide life of dignity in a clean and safe environment," he said.

Earlier, Mukherjee presented the Sustainable Development Leadership Award for the year 2009 to the visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

In view of the importance of reaching a strong and effective global agreement on climate change at the Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen in 2009, the theme of DSDS 2009 is 'Towards Copenhagen: an equitable and ethical approach'. The summit would seek to reinforce the climate change agenda of the previous year and would sharpen the focus on the theme to arrive at a global consensus on climate change beyond 2012.

The summit assumes greater significance as it connects issues related to sustainable development with climate change, and hopes to encourage activities that need to be undertaken for sustainable development across the globe.

The sub-themes for discussion at the summit are - Climate change challenge: Engaging all stakeholders for global consensus, Global finance and technology transfer, Adaptation to climate change impacts, Mitigating GHG emissions, Dealing with impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability: the challenge for Africa, Role of international organizations and the global community, Discussions on sustainable lifestyles and technologies, Imperatives of change process:---Bali---Poznan---Copenhagen, Review existing international process to frame post 2012 climate change regime.

The objective is to allow participants to showcase their climate change developmental projects and technologies to an international market and provide a momentum the solution-finding process to climate change. (ANI)