Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) The Indian government Thursday stepped out with strong support to UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) head Rajendra Pachauri after its goof-up on early melting of Himalayan glaciers, stressing “there is no wavering of support to him”.
“The Indian government is backing Pachauri to the hilt. Let there be no doubt on that. There is no wavering in the support of the Indian government. The prime minister and others in the government are supporting him as chairmen of the IPCC. Let there be no two opinions in that,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

This is the first time that the government has strongly defended Pachauri, who is facing criticism globally following the IPCC blunder in warning that Himalayan glaciers would dry out by 2035.

Ramesh also accepted that the government annually spends Rs.5.7 million for running the IPCC office in Delhi.

“As a gesture of support and respect for the post of chairman of IPCC, the Indian government bears the cost of running the IPCC office in New Delhi and there is nothing unusual about it. It has been a trend in the IPCC that the chairperson is financially supported by the home country,” he added.

“As the quid pro quo of this fact, one scientist from the environment ministry from now onwards will accompany the chairman of the IPCC at its bureau meeting despite India not being a member of it. It gives us a foothold in the IPCC, and in the next IPCC bureau meeting in May in Geneva, our scientist will accompany Dr. Pachauri,” he said.

Ramesh said Pachauri is empowered to take one representative from his home country and so far this was not followed.

“The Indian representative will play the role of an observer to understand the technical discussions being held at the IPCC. The most vulnerable country to the climate change is India. If there are scientific discussions going anywhere in the world, we must be there to find out what’s happening,” he said.

The minister also announced a series of initiatives to strengthen the scientific base in the country.

The measures included setting up of a global advisory network group on environmental sciences, national environmental sciences fellows programme, expert committee to enhance the scientific capacity of the environment ministry, an action plan to enhance forestry science and an India network for climate change assessment.