PM backs Pachauri, says India has faith in IPCC

Backing R K Pachauri, who has come under flak for IPCC's goof up on melting of Himalayan glaciers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday he has earned well deserved respect and international acclaim for his contribution in meeting challenges of climate change.

India has full confidence in the IPCC process and its leadership and will support it, he said inaugurating the 10th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, while noting that, 'some aspects of the science that is reflected in the work of IPCC have faced criticism'.

"The Energy Research Insitute, has, under the able and farsighted leadership of Pachauri earned well-deserved respect and international acclaim for its contributions to the global efforts in meeting the twin challenges of energy security and climate change," he said.

Pachauri, who has been under attack from various quarters over the IPCC's 2007 report on Himalayan glaciers, has already ruled out his resignation saying that the mistake was 'unfortunate' and he would go ahead to complete the Fifth IPCC Assessment Report.

Regretting the absence of global consensus on climate issues, the prime minister asked industrialised countries to respond with bolder initiatives to contain their future emissions.

He also asked the developed nations to recognise 'more clearly' their historical role in the accumulation of green house gases.

While sharing the disappointment of many with the limited achievements of the discussions that took place at the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Singh said India fully supported the accord reached there.

India will take it forward but made it clear that it was a catalogue of voluntary commitments and not a negotiated support of legal obligations, he added.

The Copenhagen Accord decided to continue global discussions to fight climate change as it agreed in a non-legally binding manner to limit temperature rise below two degree from the pre-industrial time.

A modest accord that is fully implemented may be better than an ambitious one that falls seriously short of its targets, he told the three-day meet being attended by leaders from Norway, Finland, Bhutan, Greece and other countries.

"This is the lesson that was learnt with regard to the Kyoto Protocol", he said.

"An ambitious agreement that is observed only in the breach will discredit the whole process," he said on the Copenhagen climate change process.

The countries that have made the commitments willingly have assured themselves that they can be and will be fulfilled, he noted.

On the ongoing debate on IPCC report on Himalayan glaciers, Singh said this debate did not challenge the core projections of the UN body about the impact of green house gas accumulations on temperature, rainfall and sea level rise.

At the same time, he said the government has established an Indian Network for Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment comprising 120 research institutes, which will bring out regular reports on the impacts of climate change on different sectors and different regions of the country.

"The first such assessment will be released in November this year," he said.

Singh said India would participate in the climate negotiations in a 'spirit of flexibility, acknowledging our responsibilities as citizens of the globe'.

New Delhi will spare no effort in contributing to the success of the post-Copenhagen process, he said.

"Developing countries also need to do their bit. . .The least developed countries and small island states deserve special attention due to their greater vulnerability to climate change," Singh said.

India would support all measures to assist them, both bilaterally as well as in context of a global climate change regime, he added.

Referring to the recent meeting of Brazil, China, South Africa and India on the issue, he said this was aimed at carrying forward the positive and constructive role played by them at Copenhagen.

"It is in this spirit that India and the other BASIC countries, conveyed our respective voluntary mitigation actions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by January 31 this year," he said, adding India's endeavour to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 20-25 per cent by 2020 on 2005 basic levels.

"We are also very serious about fulfilling and perhaps even exceeding this target," the Prime Minister said. Singh also said that India was establishing a National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology in Dehra Dun and sought global cooperation in this regard.

Recognising the need to adopt a different model of growth to that followed by the industrialised countries, Singh said, "A lot of effort is needed to operationalise the meaning and precise content of sustainable development".

The Planning Commission has recently set up an Expert Group to prepare a strategy on a low carbon economic programme in India, he said. The Group would have to work out a holistic approach taking on board concerns of all stakeholders -- industry, transportation, power, labour, micro and small industry and agriculture well in time before the country embarks on 12th Five Year Plan from April 2012, the prime minister said.

India has already unveiled one of the world's most ambitious plan for promoting solar energy, targeting an installed capacity of 20,000 MW by 2022, he said, adding the country would soon launch a National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency.

This would put in place an innovative policy and regulatory regime to unlock the market for energy efficiency, estimated at over 15 billion dollars, Singh said, noting that the initiative would lead to avoidance of capacity addition of nearly 20,000 MW and reduced carbon dioxite emissions of almost 99 million tonners.

"It is becoming clear that the roots of the problems we face today are in the current patterns of global production and consumption, which are not sustainable.

"We are living on an overdraft on Nature's resources and this is already threatening the ecological balance, which is the basis of our survival," the prime minister said.

Image: R K Pachauri