By IANS,
New Delhi : Students holding banners and posters Monday sent out a message to visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying the US should take responsibility for being one of the “biggest” contributors to the climate change, before it blamed the developing world.
Siddharth Pathak of Greenpeace, an NGO that had organised the students’ protest, said: “The US is one of the biggest culprits contributing to global warming, which has led to an increase in the intensity of disasters including the cyclone in Sundarbans leading to a humanitarian crisis.
“It’s time they take responsibility for their actions and take concrete steps to lower the effect,” he said, standing next to the more than 20 students from Delhi schools near India Gate. The students were in the age group of 12-14.
At a climate change event in Gurgaon a day earlier, Clinton, while acknowledging the US’ responsibility as the biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, said: “To lift people out of poverty and to give every child born in India a chance to live up to his or her given potential is a goal that we share with you.
“But we also believe that there is a way to eradicate poverty and develop sustainably that will lower significantly the carbon footprint of the energy that is produced and consumed to fuel that growth.”
Pathak said: “We need strong actions globally to avert this crisis and these actions need to start from the industrialised countries.”
“Contrary to the imperative, the US has repeatedly failed to come up with strong domestic mitigation actions and is silent on the financial support for the developing countries to help the most vulnerable populations’ adapt to the impact,” he said.