New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS) There should be “something like a a global Marshall Plan” to spread green technologies in the developing world, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said here Friday as the Delhi conference on technologies to combat climate change concluded.
The two-day conference — attended by 30 ministers and 58 delegations from around the world — said there was great need for a “green technology accelerator” that would help the world shift from its dependence on fossil fuels.

The Marshall Plan provided a huge financial package to rebuild Europe after World War II devastation and was basically responsible for propelling Europe’s economic growth.

The excessive use of fossil fuels is leading to the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) which is causing climate change.

Delegates at the conference felt that there should be a “special mechanism under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for technology transfer, development and deployment, supported by a special fund, with periodic assessment of performance, and a mechanism to oversee the functioning of the IPR (intellectual property rights) regime for climate and development goals,” according to the chairman’s summary.

The recommendations of the Delhi conference will feed into the discussions at this December’s climate summit in Copenhagen.

Denmark’s Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard, who spoke at the valedictory session here, later told the media that the “political price of a failure at Copenhagen will be very high, but the highest price will have to be paid by the poorest people of the world”.

Negotiations towards a Copenhagen deal are stuck because industrialised countries have neither announced significant GHG emissions reductions, nor have they put any money on the table to help developing countries cope with the effects of the global warming that rich countries have caused.

With finance ministers from European Union (EU) countries having failed to come up with a financial package, Hedegaard hoped that EU heads of state meeting next week would be able to break the logjam, a process that would be complemented by the G20 finance ministers’ meet Nov 6-7. India is part of the G20.

Asked if she expected a comprehensive climate deal at Copenhagen, Hedegaard said the details would not be worked out, but the main building blocks would hopefully be in place.