‘India gives breakthrough on climate change talks’

October 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - India has proposed annual bilateral dialogues with the United States and the European Union to exchange notes on the issue of climate change, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said. The proposed dialogue with the Europeans and the Americans could be on the lines of the first India-China energy dialogue scheduled to take place in New Delhi Oct 21, he said at a press conference here Friday at the end of his US visit.

September 22nd, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - Asserting that India has not caused the climate change problem in any way, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said New Delhi will be part of the solution, but the outcome must be rooted in equity.

September 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States' top climate official said there had been a "narrowing of differences" after a meeting of the world's 17 top polluters that are critical to reaching any international deal on curbing climate change. Todd Stern, the US State Department's envoy on climate change, said Friday some "concrete initiatives" that could help broker a deal were considered during two days of talks by the climate officials in Washington.

September 17th, 2009 NEW YORK - The Prime Minister's Principal Secretary, T. K. A Nair met the UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon and discussed the country's stand on climate change on Thursday.

September 1st, 2009 KOLKATA - Britain understands the need for economic growth in India and would not pressurise New Delhi to reduce emissions, British Minister for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband said here Tuesday. "I have not come here to ask your government to reduce emissions.

August 24th, 2009 STOCKHOLM - Participants at the World Water Week conference here have urged the governments to include the problem of water shortage in the negotiations on climate change. Access to drinking water has a significant impact on economy, health, agriculture and other spheres of life, they said.

July 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - "India considers China its most important ally in Copenhagen negotiations," Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Friday. Negotiations for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) summit in Copenhagen this December have often been fractious, with developed and major developing countries like India and China often taking opposing stands on who should do more to combat global warming.

July 19th, 2009 GURGAON - Underlining differences with developed countries over climate change, Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh Sunday said India can't accept legally binding greenhouse emission targets. "I like to make it clear and categorical that we are simply not in position to take on legal binding on emission reduction targets," Ramesh said at a conference on climate change at the ITC Green Centre in this satellite town of Delhi.

July 19th, 2009 Clinton: US, India to join hands on climate changeNEW DELHI — India and the United States can jointly devise a breakthrough plan for fighting climate change that will generate massive new investments and millions of jobs, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday.

July 15th, 2009 EU teams up with MTV on climate changeBRUSSELS — The European Union is teaming up with music channel MTV to raise awareness among teens about the dangers of climate change. EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas says today's youth "will bear the brunt" of climate change, including rising temperatures and sea-levels.

July 11th, 2009 ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE - India and China need to resist pressure from industrialised countries on the issue of climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday. The developed countries are by far the biggest polluters of the environment since the start of the Industrial Age.

July 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India is now spending over 2.6 percent of its gross domestic product to adapt to climate change, says the country's annual Economic Survey, tabled in parliament Thursday by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The effect of climate change on "agriculture, water resources, health and sanitation, forests, coastal-zone infrastructure and extreme events" are "specific areas of concern", says the survey.

June 12th, 2009 BONN - Climate negotiators from the Obama administration will be in New Delhi to hold bilateral talks on what India is ready to do to tackle global warming, the leader of the US delegation to a UN conclave said here Friday. Jonathan Pershing, who led the US delegation at these preparatory talks of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the December summit in Copenhagen, said he had met the leader of the Indian delegation Shyam Saran on the sidelines of the talks here.

May 19th, 2009 LONDON - A US-China deal on climate change could be reached in autumn this year after secret back-channel meetings in the closing months of the Bush administration, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Guardian said a high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats, including the current White House adviser John Holdren, led two missions to China for climate talks last year.

March 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy on nuclear issues and climate change Shyam Saran is holding talks with the Obama administration focusing on cooperation in the field of renewable and clean energy. Saran Monday articulated India's view on how to tackle the crucial issue taking into account the concerns of developing and emerging economies at meetings with Todd Stern, US Special Envoy on Climate Change and Nancy Helen Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.