India: Poor Nations Won't Slow Development
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday that the world's poor nations will not sacrifice their development in negotiations for a new climate change deal.
The issue of how to share the burden of fighting global warming has divided the developing and industrialized worlds as they prepare to negotiate a replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol at a December summit in Copenhagen.
"Developing countries cannot and will not compromise on development," Singh told an international conference on technology and climate change.
However, even poorer countries need to "do our bit to keep our emissions footprint within levels that are sustainable and equitable," he said.
Developing countries argue that the industrial world produced most of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases and should bear the costs of fixing the problem. Wealthy nations say all countries - including growing polluters India and China - have to agree to broad cuts in emissions.
India and China agreed Wednesday to stand together on climate change issues at the Copenhagen meeting. The two nations agreed to work on slowing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, but resisted making those limits binding and subject to international monitoring.
Developing countries want financial aid for their climate change efforts, and Singh said wealthy nations have an obligation to ensure they get access to new, clean technology that will cut emissions and increase energy efficiency.
"We need technology solutions that are appropriate, affordable and effective," he said.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said any agreement at Copenhagen would need to include ambitious emissions cuts for industrialized countries, limit the growth of emissions from developing nations and give significant financial support to help poor nations comply with the targets.
"We have very little time remaining," he said.
Scientists say warming weather will lead to widespread drought, floods, higher sea levels and worsening storms.
Even a 3.6-degree-Fahrenheit (2-degree-Celsius) temperature rise could subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050, according to a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists.
Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed warned Thursday that developing nations would bear the brunt of environmental catastrophes caused by global warming and insisted that a new deal was essential.
"On the issue of climate change, there is no room for compromise, no deals, no half measures. Radical change is what's required," Nasheed told the conference.
Nasheed has become a leading voice on the issue of global warming, with his low-lying Indian Ocean island nation in danger of being swamped by rising sea levels.
AP The issue of how to share the burden of fighting global warming has divided the developing and industrialized worlds as they prepare to negotiate a replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol at a December summit in Copenhagen.
"Developing countries cannot and will not compromise on development," Singh told an international conference on technology and climate change.
However, even poorer countries need to "do our bit to keep our emissions footprint within levels that are sustainable and equitable," he said.
Developing countries argue that the industrial world produced most of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases and should bear the costs of fixing the problem. Wealthy nations say all countries - including growing polluters India and China - have to agree to broad cuts in emissions.
India and China agreed Wednesday to stand together on climate change issues at the Copenhagen meeting. The two nations agreed to work on slowing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, but resisted making those limits binding and subject to international monitoring.
Developing countries want financial aid for their climate change efforts, and Singh said wealthy nations have an obligation to ensure they get access to new, clean technology that will cut emissions and increase energy efficiency.
"We need technology solutions that are appropriate, affordable and effective," he said.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said any agreement at Copenhagen would need to include ambitious emissions cuts for industrialized countries, limit the growth of emissions from developing nations and give significant financial support to help poor nations comply with the targets.
"We have very little time remaining," he said.
Scientists say warming weather will lead to widespread drought, floods, higher sea levels and worsening storms.
Even a 3.6-degree-Fahrenheit (2-degree-Celsius) temperature rise could subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050, according to a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists.
Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed warned Thursday that developing nations would bear the brunt of environmental catastrophes caused by global warming and insisted that a new deal was essential.
"On the issue of climate change, there is no room for compromise, no deals, no half measures. Radical change is what's required," Nasheed told the conference.
Nasheed has become a leading voice on the issue of global warming, with his low-lying Indian Ocean island nation in danger of being swamped by rising sea levels.
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Oh yea? You will if we stop buying all of your $hitty products.
There is one positive to the economic crisis in the U.S. Most of the people I speak to are starting to see that we need to buy only American, and if american made goods are not available we need to speak to the store owners to make sure they are made available.
An example of this is the fact that the one company poised to make s huge comeback and dominate the car industry is ford. I have always purchased Honda's but not anymore. They have predicted that by the end of 2012 Ford will lead Toyota, Honda and all of the other companies. People are buying American again.
The other difference is 3 or 4 years ago I used to hear people saying how we had an obligation to feed the world ect. because of all of the material goods and resources we had. Now they see that those people they wanted to feed are rootign for us to fail, they now see it is us against them in a battle to control resources.
The U.S.A. will win in the long run, and hopefully we have come to the point were we play for keeps all the time against everyone.
Wrong, don't expect U.S. taxpayers to give you anything.
Have any other americans noticed our economy and standard off living was better off when these nations were dirt poor. Why help them improve if it is at our expense.
Most of us are not willing to sacrifice our material based standard of living for them. We were promised if we worked hard and followed the rules we would have cars, TVs vacation homes ect. Why should we not have these things? We need to shut off trade and aid to these countries and keep the loot and resources for ourselves. Besides what have they ever done for us?