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Removing poverty top priority, Manmohan tells Rio+20-Shobhan Saxena

RIO DE JANEIRO: Making a strong pitch for removing poverty in India and reminding the developed world of its commitment to sustainable development, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday called for setting up a global system that allows each country to develop according to its own priorities. "For developing countries, inclusive growth and a rapid increase in per capita income levels are development imperatives," the Prime Minister said in his address to more than 100 world leaders at the UN summit on sustainable development, popularly known as Rio+20.

In a brief but focused address to the gathering that included Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Indian Prime Minister reminded the developed country the commitments they made 20 years ago. "The 1992 Rio Summit correctly acknowledged that poverty eradication must remain the over-riding priority for developing countries. Those living at the subsistence level cannot bear the costs of adjustment and their livelihood considerations are important in determining how scarce natural resources such as land, water and forests are used," Manmohan Singh. "Moreover, current consumption patterns in the industrialized world are unsustainable. We need to find new pathways for sustainable living," said the Indian leader, who was invited to speak by Rousseff amid a loud applause.

In the past 24 hours, since the summit was kicked-off, the leaders of Brazil, India and China have raised the same issues and used identical language in their support to eradicating poverty. "The outcome document clearly recognizes poverty eradication as the greatest global challenge. In doing so, it places this squarely at the centre of the global development agenda," India's environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan said while addressing a group of Indian mediapersons. "We have also recognized green economy as one of the means to sustainable development and poverty eradication, and have firmly rejected unilateral measures and trade barriers under the guise of green economy," the minister added.

On India's stance on green economy, the Indian minister left nothing to imagination with her scathing criticism of rich nations. "When we talk of the green economy, India is committed to a green world economy but, I must hasten to add, a real green economy -- not a green washed greed economy," Natarajan said.

On Thursday, going along with the spirit of the conference, where the developing nations have managed to keep focus on poverty despite enormous pressure from the developed nations to give more priority to green economy, the Indian Prime Minister said the problem should be guided by equitable burden sharing. "It is for this reason that the first Rio Summit enshrined the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. I am happy we have reaffirmed this principle as well as the principle of equity during this summit," the Prime Minister said.

Unlike the Chinese premier, who in his address on Thursday pledged to give $6 million to a United Nations Environment Program fund for work in developing countries with environmental protection and another 200 million yuan for a project to help small island countries, least developed countries and African countries tackle climate change, Manmohan Singh didn't make any announcement on funding.

However, the Prime Minister did address the issue of financing the green economy projects, something that caused a wedge between the developed nations and G-77 countries led by India, China and Brazil during the drafting of the text 'The Future We Want', which will be adopted by the summit tomorrow. "Many countries could do more if additional finance and technology were available. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of support from the industrialised countries in these areas. The ongoing economic crisis has made matters worse," the Prime Minister said, again reminding the rich nations to pitch in more for sustainable development without pressuring the developing countries to adopt green economy.

Earlier, speaking at the opening of the meeting, President Rousseff too had asked the developed countries to fulfill the promises of financing of sustainable development objectives 20 years ago in Rio 92. The Brazilian President defended the text presented and approved by the Brazilian delegation on Tuesday and said it was necessary that the world leaders deem most courageous steps to achieve the goals of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection, and stressed that "time is the resource the highest lack".