By IANS,
London : India, which has a “strong new government and moral authority”, should now lead global negotiations on climate change, a leading British expert has urged.
“India’s low emissions and its challenge of poverty reduction give her moral authority on climate change. And with its strong new government and fine analysts, India is well-placed to take a lead in setting the agenda,” said Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Stern, who was delivering the 30th Jawaharlal Nehru lecture at Chatham House Wednesday, said India must take the lead ahead of a climate change summit in Copenhagen scheduled to be held in December.
“India has been viewed by many, in my view unfairly, as an obstacle to progress. Now is the time for India to move into the lead on international discussions,” said Stern, who is also director of the India Observatory in the Asia Research Centre at the LSE.
India’s role at the summit and in the runup to it will be “vital,” Stern said, adding: “There is no more important issue for the well-being of future generations in India and the rest of the world”
Lord Stern will be delivering the 30th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Tata, at Chatham House, London, on the subject of ‘Climate change, internationalism and India in the 21st century’.
“India, because of its size, will be a crucial player in the global agreement. In these circumstances it is better to lead than to wait for others to propose.”
Stern said India should make the following four demands upon rich industrialized countries:-
– strong performance toward meeting their targets for 2020, 2025 and 2030, with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80 percent by 2050 with a 1990 baseline;
– financial support through the markets and elsewhere for actions taken in the developing world, and strong support in the battle against deforestation;
– the development of new green technologies, which should be shared with developing countries; and
– substantial assistance to developing countries to help them adapt to the impact of climate change over the next few decades.
He said the annual flow of finance from rich countries to the developed world should be in the region of $200 billion per year by the 2020s.