India to hold climate change meet,discuss clean technologies

At a climate change summit in Bonn this month,India and other developing countries had suggested an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol (a treaty which lays down commitments for countries to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions). The suggestion is that developed countries,mainly the Western world,cut emissions by 40 per cent of 1990 level by 2020,a proposal which has so far been met with resistance.

The Prime Minister’s envoy on climate change Shyam Saran has said that the technology transfer to developing countries is a burning issue and intellectual property rights globally may need to be slackened for it. “We have homed in on the issues being faced by developing countries,and technology transfer and development is a crucial issue. Through this summit we want to explore all possible technology scenarios and how a technology transfer mechanism can be evolved,” says a senior official from Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Others hold the view that newer technologies need to be made a part of clean technology ambit. “Some of the technologies that developing countries immediately need to look at to fight climate change are solar,wind,biomass. But we also need to look at the scope of nuclear energy,” says Prodipto Ghosh,chairman,FICCI Climate Change Task Force. FICCI is also an organising conference partner.

“In India,thorium-based nuclear power will be a vital clean technology. Nuclear energy is benign as far as greenhouse gas emissions are concerned and this should be included in clean development mechanisms. India needs to look at water-saving technologies. This summit will bring forth issues that may be brought up in Copenhagen,” he says.

The Copenhagen summit in December this year will take a relook at the Kyoto Protocol. Before that,countries will meet at three preparatory summits: in Bonn in August,in Bangkok in September-August and in Barcelona in November.