G-77 and China present BASIC draft at Copenhagen, saying it should be the basis of negotiations  India has said it will be "flexible" at the climate meet without compromising its national interests "Developed nations shoulder greater responsibility for carbon cuts" The draft proposal prepared by the host nation Denmark for the climate change summit starting on Monday removes the distinction between the developed and the developing countries and will be disastrous for...

The crucial climate change summit to draw up a new plan to tackle global warming that will replace the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 will begin in Copenhagen on Monday. Though not much was expected to emerge at the end of the 12-day meet until recently, hopes of some kind of a consensus on a political commitment have been kindled with world leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, deciding to attend...

It is to counter the Danish draft that proposed tough action by developing countries Call for setting up of a Global Climate Fund The four emerging economies — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — have recommended the establishment of a mechanism to develop and transfer environment-friendly technology to developing countries, remove barriers in technology transfer and appropriately address issues of intellectual property rights. The BASIC draft proposed by these four developing...

The United Nations agency entrusted with accelerating sustainable industrial development in poorer states today pledged to help the world’s 49 least developed countries (LDCs), 33 of them in Africa, to withstand global financial crisis. “The global financial crisis is moving many LDCs into troubled waters with heightened risk to exports, investment, credit, banking systems, budgets, the balance of payments, and remittances, and, the most vulnerable are those countries which depend...

Global measles deaths have fallen by 78 per cent within the past decade, with vaccinations saving some 4.3 million lives, but the disease could make a deadly comeback if funding and political will are not sustained, a United Nations-backed study warned today. All regions except South-East Asia – where India alone, with its 1-billion strong population, accounted for three out of four measles deaths in 2008 – have achieved the UN...