16 May 2006Alister Doyle
India said on Tuesday that poor nations had to give priority to ending poverty rather than fighting global warming at 189-nation U.N. climate talks criticized by environmentalists as a rambling talk shop.
Nations from Papua New Guinea to Iceland gave speeches during a novel two-day U.N. "dialogue" trying to bridge huge policy divides about how to slow a rise in temperatures that many scientists say could trigger catastrophic climate changes.
In one of the most forceful talks, India told rich nations to take the lead in cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases from fossil fuels, saying India needed more energy to end poverty for the 35 percent of its people living on less than a dollar a day.
"Removal of poverty is the greater immediate imperative" than global warming, Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary of India's Environment Ministry, told the 1,600 delegates.
Environmentalists expressed disappointment at the free-wheeling nature of the speeches.
"There was no sign of real momentum here, no sign of a focus to go anywhere," said Bill Hare, a climate policy adviser for the environmental group Greenpeace, after the meeting of senior officials ended on Tuesday evening. "This was a talk shop."
U.N. reports say developing nations such as India are likely to be among the hardest hit by rising temperatures that many scientists say could raise sea levels by up to a meter by 2100 and cause floods, droughts and heatwaves.
