New Delhi, Feb 6 (Inditop.com) Ministers from around the world Saturday emphasised the need to work together to reach consensus for achieving an accord on climate change at their next meeting in Mexico in November.
“Climate change is affecting all of us. The Himalayan glaciers are melting although there is a lot of fuss about the rate at which they are melting. I had great hopes in Copenhagen but we achieved little. We should look forward and all of us should work harder for Mexico,” said Farooq Abdullah, union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Resources.
Speaking at the Delhi Sustainable and Development Summit in the capital, Abdullah said “after Copenhagen it has become vital for us to start thinking what we want to achieve in Mexico”.
“India is a developing country and 40 percent of our population has no access to electricity. We need to develop cheap source of energy and for that we cannot work alone. We have to work with you (countries) and develop together energy from sources like sun, water, earth and wind,” he said.
Calling for action from governments across the world to create policy for investment in green technology, Australia’s Minister of Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson said: “The challenge of meeting global energy demand – in a sustainable way – is daunting. We need right policy frameworks and incentives to drive the investment in technology we need.
“It also requires partnerships with business and the research community. Clearly, access to affordable, reliable, adequate sources of energy is needed to fuel economic growth, alleviate poverty, and deliver the economic and social development we all seek,” said Ferguson.
Japan also expressed the hope of achieving a climate treaty in Mexico.
“I hope we will reach some consensus is the coming Conference of Parties 16 (COP 16) in Mexico. The main reason we did not reach a consensus in Copenhagen was that major emerging countries did not support. We need to work together to achieve it in Mexico,” said Wakako Hironaka, member of House of Councillors, Japan.
Paul Magnette, Minister of Climate and Energy, Belgium, said: “We have the capacity and technology to reduce energy consumption. The European Union believes that the nation that will lead clean energy economy will lead global economy. We can build a new way of working together by changing our ways of use of energy.”
