India wants equitable response at climate talks: PM

New Delhi - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday expressed concern over the lack of collective global will to seriously address climate change and said India would play a constructive role in climate talks as long as it was based on an equitable response.

Speaking at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here, Manmohan Singh said in the ensuing negotiations, one needed to focus on the substantive nature of arrangements, based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, more than their legal shape.

"As a developing country in the frontlines of climate vulnerability, India has a vital stake in the evolution of a successful, rule-based, equitable and multilateral response to issues relating to climate change. The principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change provide the basis for creating a workable framework along these lines," he said.

"In this context, it is necessary to recognise that currently there appears to be a lack of collective global will to address this problem with the seriousness it deserves. We need to give renewed momentum therefore to the global negotiations for cooperative collective action for management of climate change," he said.

Commending the progress made at the 17th Conference of Parties at Durban, the prime minister said: "The agreement at Durban on the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is a significant achievement because there were doubts at one time about whether any agreement could be reached. I am glad that an agreement was reached. We cannot make progress in this difficult area if we allow the commitments of the past to be unravelled."

He said there is also a growing realisation that sustainable development is not something that can be achieved by countries acting individually.

"The threat of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions has brought the world to a critical point where the actions of each and every country affect the planet as a whole. Sustainable development in this environment therefore calls for cooperation of all countries, both industrialised and developing. That cooperation must be based on the foundation of the right to development and the need for an equitable distribution of burden," he said.

"The need for equity is starkly reflected in the fact that the emissions per capita in industrialised countries are 10 to 12 times those of developing countries. We know that total emissions in the world must decline, but what does this imply for emissions in individual countries? We must find a way of solving this problem in a way that does not deprive developing countries of their right to develop," he said.

The prime minister said "as we go forward, we will need to make progress" on all the four pillars of cooperative action that were agreed upon at Bali.

"The Durban Platform must build on the Bali Action Plan. I can assure you that India will play a constructive role in the ongoing negotiations and we will certainly live up to whatever obligations fall upon us as part of a fair and equitable agreement," he said.

Explaining about the steps taken by the country to deal with climate change, Manmohan Singh said: "On our part, we are progressing with our own national strategy for mitigation and adaptation. Our National Action Plan on climate change is progressing satisfactorily and the eight National Missions are moving ahead."

"We hope to build a strategy for the Twelfth Five Year Plan which begins in April this year and it will be designed to ensure significant benefits for climate along with inclusive sustainable growth," he added.

The prime minister urged the experts gathered here to reflect whether objectives of 1992 Earth Summit have been given the importance they deserved in establishing a new and equitable global partnership.