TOYAKO: Opposing any move to impose quantitative restrictions for greenhouse emissions on developing countries, India on Wednesday asked the industrialised world not to use climate change to introduce conditionalities or "protectionism" that will hinder their efforts to meet the already complex development challenges.
In his intervention at the Major Economies Meeting (MEM) comprising the G8, the five outreach countries (O-5) and others, on the issue of climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointed out that the developed countries had failed to show progress on the low levels of agreed greenhouse gases reductions and asked the G8 to take lead on the issue.
"The quicker you reduce your emissions, the greater the incentive for us to follow," Singh told the MEM, also dubbed the major emitters meeting, attended by world leaders like US President George W Bush, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Climate change was a huge challenge for all, Singh said, but "it should not be used to add conditionalities to the already complex development challenge that the developing countires faced or retaining the economic status quo or attempting to introduce protectionism by another means."
The Prime Minister made it clear that developing countries cannot for the present even consider quantititative restrictions on their emissions as sustained and accelerated economic growth is critical for them.
