Manmohan Singh not satisfied with Copenhagen Summit outcome - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that he was not satisfied with the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit. Inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress at Thiruvananthapuram here, Dr. Singh said, "We were able to make only limited progress at the Copenhagen Summit and no one was satisfied with the outcome. And yet, there is no escaping the truth that the nations of the world have to move to a low greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficient development path." "All over the world, countries are chalking out strategies to achieve greater energy efficiency and a shift to renewable sources of energy. They are also chalking out strategies for adapting to such climate change as is inevitable. India must not lag behind in these areas. Indeed, we should plan to be among the leaders in the development of science and technology related to mitigation and also adaptation to climate change. The market for such technologies is not just India . It is indeed the whole world," he added. Dr. Singh further said, "We have also decided to launch a Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission for the establishment of 20,000 MW of solar generation capacity by the year 2020. The mission provides an opportunity to our indigenous scientific institutions to contribute in this important area." "I am very happy that a PAN IIT programme for Solar Energy Research has been launched by our Ministry of Science and Technology to drive down the costs of solar energy technology options through R&D-led innovations. The Ministry has also launched joint development programmes with knowledge networks of EU and the United Kingdom on solar energy research with investments of five million Euro and five million pounds respectively on each side," he said in addition. The Prime Minister said, "We live in an increasingly complex world with growing interdependence among different sectors of our economy. When we thought of forests as an economic resource, the focus of forest planning was almost exclusively on growing the stock of timber and other commercially valuable forest products. This led to decisions about the choice of tree species and planting practices that we now know were sub optimal, because they did not pay sufficient regard to other functions of forests like controlling water run off or for the protection of bio-diversity." "A single-minded focus on carbon reduction could lead to a similar distortion if forestry choices are based solely on how good they are in sequestering carbon. Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is no doubt an important goal. But it must co-exist with other equally important goals," he added. Dr. Singh expressed his delight while inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress, saying that it was his first engagement in 2010. "If India has to re-emerge as a knowledge power in the 21st Century, then it can only be through developing a strong capability in science and technology," he added.

Manmohan not satisfied with Copenhagen Summit outcome