Ahead of the Copenhagen conference later this year, India and the US today agreed upon the need for a "fair" agreement on climate change and discussed ways of collaborating in the fields of environmental planning, regulation, management and forestry.

On her two-day visit to the capital today, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drove straight from the airport to ITC Green, an energy-efficient building in Gurgaon, to make a case that India could grow without hurting the environment. Slated to discuss defence sales, civil nuclear issues and NPT with India tomorrow, Hillary made climate change her top priority.

Following an hour-long meeting with union environment minister Jairam Ramesh later, she said the US would not do anything to limit India's economic growth and was aware of the concerns of the developing countries that needed to eradicate poverty. She, however, said poverty eradication was possible with sustainable development.

Asked if a framework was possible with India agreeing to reduce its emissions, Hillary said a lot of discussion was needed towards that front, and India had recommended three ways for the two countries to go forward.

“We respect the insight India brings to the table about the challenges facing this planet and agree that it is hard to talk climate change without talking population,” the top US official said, after India clarified that it was in no position to accept legally binding emission reduction targets though it was aware of its global responsibility and would never allow per capita emission to go above that of the developed countries.

Ramesh reiterated India’s stand on the issue as “consistent and credible”, adding that there was no case for the pressure that India, which had among the lowest emission per capita, faces to actually reduce emission.

“We are fine with an agreement that takes note of doing something quickly on this front and also of the need for developing countries to achieve economic growth targets. We will have bilateral and multilateral discussions on this issue so as to reach a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen,” the minister said.

India today listed three areas of cooperation with the US in the area of climate change - research through an Indo-US Foundation for Climate Change; collaboration in environment planning, regulation and management, and building institutional capacity for continuing research on the subject.

Hillary, on her part, termed the discussions as “helpful” and said amplification of partnerships and development of approaches to clean energy future with India was an important topic of her visit (the matter would figure tomorrow in her meeting with foreign affairs minister S.M. Krishna).

Although eager for a successful outcome at Copenhagen, she remained guarded and was, at no point, unmindful of the constraints of the developing world. “But climate change won’t stop even if we, in the developed world, stopped emissions today. So the developing world must work for low-carbon development,” said Hillary, asking India to take the lead and assuring it of the fairness of the global framework on climate change.

“It would be one that does not sacrifice the interests of any developing country and one we can mention to our children and tell them that when crisis was upon us, we took action and took it together,” Hillary said, hopeful of an Indo-US plan to dramatically change the way energy is produced and consumed.

Earlier, Hillary was received at the airport by India’s Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar and Gayatri Kumar, joint secretary in charge of the Americas in the external affairs ministry.

Source: The Tribune : July 20, 2009