Heat at climate event

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia was surely not aware of what the Civil Society Report on Climate Change contained, otherwise he would not have agreed to release it. He seemed distinctly uncomfortable sharing the dais with people who did not believe climate change was something to be worried about, or that carbon dioxide emissions had anything to do with global warming. The report also lambasted the Nobel prize winning IPCC, calling it biased and alarmist and said some of the ways to deal with climate change were to abolish all subsidies on agriculture, privatise land and water, and do away with any form of licensing. The argument was that such steps would make the people rich and, therefore, increase their capacity to adapt to climate change. Ahluwalia, who had also released the UNDP report on climate change some time ago, seemed so agitated with the ideas that he wondered aloud how more than 2,500 scientists at IPCC could have gone so horribly wrong. He also got back at the organisers by getting the audience to say whether they agreed with the suggestions made in the report. Only three people in a gathering of 70-odd raised their hands.