Martin Bursík: India is confident in the success of the Copenhagen summit
On Thursday, President of the EU Environment Council Martin Bursík led the EU delegation at a meeting with Indian Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena. “I have a good feeling about the meeting,” commented Bursík.
”Minister Meena expressed his optimism regarding the global agreement on climate protection to be concluded in Copenhagen in December 2009; India is ready to contribute to the success of the negotiations,” said Martin Bursík who lead the European delegation that consisted, among others, of the Commission’s Director General for Environment, Karl Falkenberg, and Sweden’s Climate Ambassador, Staffan Tillander.
Until the end of 2008 the European Union focused particularly on internal debate on the climate-energy package. With the onset of the Czech Presidency, the EU has entered the phase of negotiations with key global partners. During last week the first meetings with the Obama administration were already held; India is the second significant country in the sequence of meetings.
Indian Environment Minister Nama Narain Meena mentioned that in India 25 percent of people live under the poverty line and some 600 million citizens have no access to electricity, which are the particulars that his country must take into consideration in negotiations on the future form of the climate agreement. India has adopted a National Action Plan on Climate Change that specifies the following objectives: to save 10 000 MW of energy as by 2012, to make car emission standards more strict, to increase production of electricity from solar power plants to 1000 MWh/year, to plant 6 million hectares of degraded forest soil with trees and to expand forests from today’s 23 percent to 33 percent of the country’s area.
India strives to promote the latest technologies and actively develops the industry of recycling and waste which creates new job opportunities.
The European Union envisages that developing countries will submit concrete proposals of measures for the fight against climate changes together with mechanisms that would inspect their realisation.
The discussion also addressed the possibilities of climate protection financing in developing countries. Minister Bursík stated that the EU is discussing various possibilities of financing of projects designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to adjust to climate changes. In this respect, the first conclusions will be provided by the spring European Council and the Council of Ministers of Environment and Finance in March.
The result of yesterday’s meeting was a consensus that the existing finance mechanisms relevant for climate protection in developing countries are administratively demanding, their preparation is costly, and thus it is desirable to adjust their function towards higher efficiency and easier access to resources; however the necessary inspection mechanisms must be put in place at the same time.
contact:
- Jakub Kašpar, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic
- tel.: +420 267 122 040, GSM: +420 724 175 927; e-mail: jakub.kaspar@mzp.cz
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:47
