The summit of the G-8 and G-5 in L'Aquila is expected to come out with a strong political message on the climate change issues but developed countries are still reluctant to accept some of the responsibilities like immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and financing technologies.
Indian officials engaged in discussions on the issue at the Summit of G-8 with G-5 outreach countries at this mountain town say that climate change is one of the major agenda items of the discussions and an agreed document was ready to be released by the Major Economies Forum which includes some additional countries.
The Indian delegation is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and includes National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and PM's Special Envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran.
The joint declaration to be issued will contain an important political message but the devil is in the details, the officials said stressing the urgency of the issue with just about 150 days left for the Copenhagen summit on climate change.
Briefing reporters, Menon said the discussions also covered the current global economic crisis and the need to implement steps decided at the London Summit of G-20 and which have still not been fully implemented.
Issues, which India has been pressing for like the need for immediate restructuring of the international financial architecture by recasting the global financial institutions and also reforms of various institutions of governance like UN Security Council, have also come up and the summit documents are expected to make a mention of them.
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