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India seeks transfer of environment-friendly technologies

India has asked industrialised states to show political will to transfer environment-friendly technologies to developing nations at affordable prices.

"Developed societies, which have already overdrawn substantially from our common resources, must now act on commitments made at the Rio Earth Summit and reaffirm to provide adequate and stable financial resources and transfer environmentally-sound technologies to developing countries," Union Environment and Forest Minister T R Baalu told the UN Commission on Sustainable Development at the United Nations.

Citing India's example, he said, the country was in the process of improving road infrastructure, providing an efficient transportation system and better quality of fuels.

But all these required technology and financial resources. State funding would continue to be a major source as indeed will be international financial assistance on concessional terms, Baalu told the conference.

Agreeing on the need to phase out subsidies in energy sector, Baalu said as long as there were populations in developing countries with no access to energy and till there was poverty, subsidies were unavoidable.

Launching a veiled attack on the Bush administration, Baalu said some countries doubt the fact of climate change and were putting in jeopardy the hard work done so far in the field.

"We cannot relax our efforts as technical and scientific assessment overwhelmingly support our fears (on Greenhouse effect and climate change)," Baalu said.

An international debate on source of energy was not required as long as they could be safely controlled, he said.

Discussion on energy, Baalu told the delegates, should not focus merely on electricity but also on non-commercial sources of energy such as biomass as majority of people in rural areas in several countries still relied on non-commercial sources of energy.

Stating the contribution of non-conventional sources of energy produced in India would rise from three per cent at present to ten per cent in a decade, he reminded the rich nations that renewable energy required investments in technology and called for innovative financial mechanisms.

"We need cleaner technologies for more efficient use, but face the obstacle of technology development, transfer and adaptation at affordable terms," he stressed.

Stating that the Rio commitments of developed countries remained unfulfilled, Baalu said this aspect needed to be looked into and explored further in any discussion on institutional changes on environment governance.

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