No more licence raj but need green standards: PM

“The central principle that must be enshrined in any sustainable development strategy is that incentives facing all economic decision makers must encourage them to act in a manner that is environmentally benign,” he said inaugurating the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2011 here.

Singh’s remarks come in the wake of the environment ministry raising the red flag recently over several multi-billion dollar projects citing violation of green norms.

“We must put in place a structure of regulatory policies which will prevent potentially damaging behaviour. This is what we do by setting regulatory standards and enforcing them,” he said.

“I must emphasise that standards are not enough. They must also be enforced which is often difficult,” Singh said at the summit which was attended by Presidents of Afghanistan,Dominican Republic and Seychelles Hamid Karzai,Leonel Fernandez,and James Alix Michel respectively.

At the same time,Singh said it was necessary to ensure that the regulatory standards do not bring back the license permit raj which the government had got rid of in the wake of economic reforms of the early nineties.

To deal with the issue of residual pollution caused despite regulation,the Prime Minister emphasised on the polluter-must-pay principle.

“This will discourage the polluters and also provide a means of financing the corrective steps necessary to counter the pollution caused,” he said.

Noting that India was setting standards for most energy consuming industries,Singh said “as a general rule we are trying to establish the principle that the polluter must pay though that is much more difficult to achieve in all cases”.

He said last year,the government had introduced a cess of five per cent on the use of coal both domestic or imported to build the corpus of a National Clean Energy Fund.

On climate change,the Prime Minister said industrialised nations have to make clear commitments on emission reduction targets to ensure that the goals set at the Copenhagen climate summit were met.

“India,China and many other developing countries have all responded with significant voluntary goals and specific plans on emission intensity reduction,” Singh said.

“If we have to tackle global inertia,we will need to see clear commitments from the industrial countries on emission reduction targets for 2020 that are consistent with the Copenhagen goal of containing the likely temperature increase to no more than 2 degree centigrade or less,” he said.

“We do not as yet have a response from the industrialised countries which is consistent with meeting that objective,” Singh said.

The Prime Minister said even if India was able to eliminate all its greenhouse gas emissions,it would not make a significant difference because its emissions account for only four per cent of the global total.

“Our view has been that those who have been primarily responsible for the build up of greenhouse gases and who also have the greatest capacity to act should bear the brunt of the responsibility,” he said.

Developing nations were much less culpable,and have a much greater need for continued growth,Singh said,adding that such countries should be helped to achieve sustainable development paths.

“India will continue to play a constructive and responsible role in the on-going negotiations and will work with the international community to find practical,pragmatic and equitable solutions,” he said.

Singh said the world must move away from production and consumption patterns which are carbon-intensive and energy-intensive.

“Without this shift in the patterns of energy generation and use,ecologically sustainable development will remain mostly a pious aspiration if not merely a buzz word,” he said.

Singh pitched for making changes in lifestyles,particularly in the developed world,and learning to make do with less.

“In developing countries,poverty eradication will have to be linked to the availability of clean,renewable and affordable energy,” he said.