Underlining immediate need for the restoration of global ecological balance, Uttarakhand Governor Sudarshan Agarwal today said that the polluting countries should be assigned the responsibility for the clean-up operations and the victim countries should be entitled to free transfer of clean technology and mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Addressing the opening session of a conclave organised by the International Academy of Law and the World Council for Corporate Governance on "Legislative measures to combat climate change" in Nainital, the Governor observed that there was an urgent need at the policy level to bring in various controls such as stringent vehicle and industrial emission laws, shift from fossil fuels to renewable fuels, reforms in both forestry and farming sectors and laws on applying energy efficiently.

The Nainital conclave is a prelude to the first-ever Convention on Corporate Response to Climate Change, being held next week at Palampur in Himachal Pradesh.

The convention's focus is to reduce carbon footprint, bio-fuel bazaar and carbon trading as well as Wellness exhibition on holistic solution for rejuvenation therapies for body, mind and soul.

Tamil Nadu Governor S.S. Barnala said the protection of environment was a shared and common concern of humanity and manifestly required a heightened degree of cooperation.

In his keynote address, president, World Council for Corporate Governance, Dr Madhav Mehra observed that temperatures in India could rise by 6 degrees celsius by the end of the century, causing flooding of the entire coastline of India and severe drought conditions in the rest of the country. These called for mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Famous dancer and social activist Sonal Man Singh , director, NTPC, Chandan Roy, DG, International Academy of Law, J.C. Khurana, senior journalist Seema Mustafa, Dr Veena Pandey and Dr B.S.Kotlia, respective heads of departments of biotechnology and geology at Kumaon University, also presented their views at the conclave.