Delhi Sustainable Development Summit tomorrow, PM to open

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) Leaders of a number of countrieswill assemble here tomorrow to discuss ways to address theproblem of climate change through local initiatives at aconclave to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President of the DominicanRepublic Leonel Fernandez Reyna and President of SeychellesJames Alix Michel will attend the 11th edition of the ''DelhiSustainable Development Summit'' (DSDS 2011) with a theme of"Tapping Local Initiatives and Tackling Global Inertia".

Decision-makers from governments, corporate, NGOs,multilateral and bilateral organisations, academia andresearch institutions will be attending the summit, said theEnergy and Resources Institute (TERI), the organisers of thesummit, in a release here.

"DSDS 2011 will serve as a platform to appreciate debateand identify key learnings from examples of local successesneeded to move the world as a whole in the right direction. Itwill enable creating a uniform level of understanding amongall stakeholders; provide an opportunity for constructivedialogue on climate change to arrive at an agreement toformulate meaningful policy options," it said.

TERI along with the Norwegian Institute for Agriculturaland Environmental Research today organised a workshop on Waterand Climate Change -- a special event -- before commencing thesummit tomorrow.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General of TERI andchairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change R KPachauri expressed his concern over the increase in pollutionin the country''s major rivers, including the Ganga.

He requested Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid totravel down the Ganga river to study the factors that make itimpossible to even take bath in the holy river.

"I think he was to do that and go down the Ganga riverand see what are the factors making it almost impossible forpeople to even take bath in a river, which everybody regardswith religious respect. I think that (this is) something thathe needs to be very concerned about," Pachauri said at theworkshop presided over by Khurshid here. .