The Hindu : Front Page : “Sustainable development a bigger challenge than climate change”

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Sunday, Apr 12, 2009
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“Sustainable development a bigger challenge than climate change”

Special Correspondent

Development is proving more and more unsustainable: Pachauri

— Photo: V. Ganesan

R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu and K. Furukawa, vice-chairman and executive officer of Hitachi Limited, in a discussion at a function to commemorate 50 years of Hindu-Hitachi Scholarship and environmental symposium in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: The present challenge faced by the world lies in returning to a path of sustainable development and this is much bigger than meeting the threat of climate change, R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said here on Saturday.

For over 150 years, the world pursued the process of industrialisation and the path of development was clearly proving more and more unsustainable. What was required was “to bring our forces and intellectual capacity in tandem whereby we can meet the challenge effectively without major disruption, without compromising on the ability of future generations of their needs.”

Dr. Pachauri was delivering the keynote address at a function to commemorate 50 years of Hindu-Hitachi Scholarship and a symposium on energy, environment and future India-Japan collaboration.

Noting that climate change was only a “part of a major failure” that human society had committed without realising it, Dr. Pachauri said that even now sceptics continued to question the scientific validity that IPCC had brought out on the adverse effects of climate change.

Explaining the harmful impacts of climate change, he said 11 of the last 12 years ranked among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature. Decreases in glaciers had contributed about 28 per cent of sea level rise since 1993. Water supplies stored in glaciers were projected to decline.

Dr. Pachauri called for greater research in areas such as drought-resistance species and salt-tolerant species. Pointing out that India and Japan had reverence for culture and traditions, he wanted the two countries to evolve together a model of sustainable development which would be an example for the rest of the world. He suggested collaborative projects in renewable energy and green buildings.

M. Mizukami, Minister in the Embassy of Japan, said the Japanese government last year announced a scheme to accept 3,00,000 foreign students by which the government would raise the number of foreign students in Japan from 1,20,000 to 3,00,000 by 2020. Compared to China which sent 70,000 students to Japan, India currently sent only 500 students, the envoy said.

He referred to his country’s collaboration with India in environment and energy projects being implemented in Tamil Nadu.

A. Asrani, former Indian ambassador to Japan, said that in the last five years India was the largest recipient of Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance, covering a large number of power and energy projects.

Pointing out that Japan was a major manufacturer of civil nuclear energy equipment, Mr. Asrani said that unlike the United States, France and Russia, the government of Japan might not be in a position to sign a cooperation agreement with India in the near future.

Listing a number of factors, he emphasised that public opinion in Japan should be moulded in favour of cooperation with India.

A.K. Kolar, Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, highlighted the importance of closer ties at the level of academic institutions and establishments of higher learning between the two countries. T. Yoshida, Chief Representative of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Developement Organisation (NEDO), New Delhi, and N. Sakamoto, senior researcher, Hitachi Research Institute, spoke.

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