New Delhi - Appropriate and effective technology solutions were the key to helping developing countries meet the challenge of climate change, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday. Singh was speaking at at an international conference on climate change and technology in the Indian capital.
Developed countries were better placed to evolve such technology solutions and financially assist in transfers to poorer nations, Singh said, adding, "Climate friendly and environmentally sound technologies should be viewed as global public goods."
Developing countries could not compromise on development, but they did recognize that they had to do their bit in keeping emission footprints within sustainable and equitable levels, Singh said.
India has refused to agree to legally-binding emissions targets under a new climate deal that is expected to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December.
"The key issue before us is that of developing the appropriate technologies and then collapsing the time from their first commercialization to their large-scale adoption in poorer developing countries," Singh said.
Appropriate, affordable and effective technology solutions had to be backed by financial arrangements to facilitate technology transfers, Singh added.
He said industrialized nations had the capacity to shift new energy efficient processes even if they involved additional costs, while developing countries did not have the capacity.
"Therefore, it is only appropriate that the shift in their case should be facilitated by adequate financial support," he said, adding that as the new technology spread its costs should fall.
India was committed to "a comprehensive, balanced and above all, an equitable outcome at Copenhagen," Singh said.
The two-day conference in Delhi, co-hosted by India's Environment Ministry and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, is being attended by 30 ministers and 58 delegations from around the world.
