Clinton assures India on climate change plan

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, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said yesterday.

She also assured India that while the US wants it to do more to fight climate change, Washington will never impose conditions that would limit India’s economic growth.

Clinton, who arrived in India late on Friday, said that devising a comprehensive and strategic approach for achieving a clean energy future is an important topic of her three-day trip.

“I am very confident the United States and India can devise a plan that will dramatically change the way we produce, consume and conserve energy and in the process spark an explosion of new investment and millions of jobs,” she said, without elaborating.

Clinton was speaking to reporters after visiting the ITC hotel chain’s Green Building outside New Delhi.

The non commercial building is designed to tap maximum natural light with windows that keep out heat, reducing the need for air conditioners.

Climate change is one of the most contentious issues between India and the US because of the Obama administration’s push for New Delhi to accept limits on carbon emissions as part of an international climate change agreement.

To emphasise the importance of the matter, Clinton travelled with the special US envoy for climate change, Todd Stern.

The US-India disagreement is part of a broader conflict between the world’s major industrial polluters and developing countries who say they are being made to pay for the rich countries’ past extravagances that triggered global warming.