The Union Government on Tuesday revealed that nuclear energy will be an important component of the 24 critical initiatives to be taken up by different ministries in India to combat climate change. For energy efficiency,it will work on closed cycle three-stage nuclear power technologies. The Prime Minister wants 20,000 megawatt of nuclear energy to be generated by 2020. We are taking French and Russian help for this. We are aggressively pushing for this technology and nuclear energy will be a major component of our fight against climate change," Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said. Ramesh,whose ministry is the nodal agency dealing with climate change,said a detailed plan is being made in this regard. As reported earlier in The Indian Express,Ramesh reiterated that India would not accept any binding cuts on emissions,even as the world is headed to a potential global climate change deal at a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet in Copenhagen this December. India is also against any form of tariffs against goods from a country which does not make emission cuts. Recently,the US had in its Climate Change Bill proposed trade penalties on high carbon goods,or goods from a country which does not make low-carbon goods. Both the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Environment and Forests are clear that no connections should be made between climate change and the World Trade Organisation. We reject any barriers or tariffs in the name of climate change. India will also not take any international monitoring on the issue of emission cuts. We will consider taking international financial aid for adaptation as this is our key concern, he said. Virtually rejecting a bilateral agreement on climate change at this stage,he said,We dont want to enter into bilateral agreements now even though India has received many offers. We prefer sticking to the multilateral nature of the UNFCCC. We believe this is an issue on which countries have to work together. India has also put forward a reforestation proposal before the UNFCCC. Called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation,(REDD),the proposal calls for effective forest management as a natural way to mitigate climate change. Brazil wants to cut trees. Here in India,we want to utilise funds to plant forests, Ramesh said.
