NEW YORK - External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will articulate India’s stand on climate change at the UN summit being hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday.

Krishna will represent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the summit hosted by Ban to bring about a fair and ratifiable green house gas reduction agreement at this year’s Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Krishna is expected to reiterate New Delhi’s stand that any attempt to address the problem of climate change must take into account the imperatives of poverty reduction and economic progress in developing countries and the responsibility of the developed countries.

India maintains that any long-term goal or conditionalities being set towards lessening the effects of climate change “should always take into account the centrality of the need of the developing countries in this regard.”

The summit of more than 100 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, would talk about fighting climate change in a prelude to the Pittsburgh Group of 20 meetings starting Thursday. While the talk will be about the environment, the substance will be about money. Poor nations say that if rich nations want them to stop burning coal or cutting down forests, they should be willing to pay.

On the eve of the largest-ever gathering of world leaders on the issue of climate change, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday underscored the urgent need for collective action to save the planet. Calling on civil society, faith groups, businesses and governments to join forces to combat climate change, he said: “Your collective efforts are vital for generating greater public awareness on climate change.”

Tuesday’s summit seeks to mobilize political momentum to “accelerate the pace of negotiations and help strengthen the ambition of what is on offer,” said Ban.

The summit will also feature a UN Leadership Forum Luncheon hosted by former US Vice-President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore which will mark the first time that global political leaders, as well as top business and civil society officials, will meet on such a large scale at the UN.