American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday pledged support for the creation of a global climate fund to help developing countries. She called for credible elections in Myanmar and restraint on the inter-Korean border.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit of the forum of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Ms. Clinton set benchmarks for evaluating the potential outcome of the imminent Copenhagen climate conference.
The U.S., she said, was “committed to reaching the goal of a global, legally binding climate agreement”. Citing yardsticks to “judge the result at Copenhagen”, she said any agreement should commit all nations to a fair share of their responsibility to combat global warming.
Secondly, the developed nations should agree to strong action for climate-change mitigation. They should also pledge to help developing countries through “financing, technology cooperation, the dissemination of technology, forest preservation and others”. As a reciprocal move, the major developing countries must also agree to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, she said.
Transparency and accountability in the implementation of national actions should form another dimension of any accord. Ms. Clinton emphasised the need to “endorse a funding facility to assist developing countries”.
Urging a collective commitment, across the development divide, for “a cleaner, greener planet”, she said “under any circumstances Copenhagen is not the end of the process.”
On Myanmar, now being drawn out by the U.S. for a dialogue, Ms. Clinton said: “Certainly China has the opportunity to play a very positive role as does Thailand and India and the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations). We would like [these] countries … to persuade [the Myanmar junta] that it is time to start planning for free, fair, and credible elections in 2010. It will be useful to have a validation of those elections.”
The U.S., she said, was counselling the two Koreas to stay calm and adopt caution following their Tuesday’s naval clash. Despite that border skirmish, the U.S. would go ahead with its plan to send an envoy to Pyongyang for talks with North Korea on its denuclearisation.
India, China praised
India and China have done some good for the recession-hit world economy by keeping their national economies ticking and growing, according to World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
Answering questions at a roundtable session organised by the Foreign Correspondents’ Association here, Mr. Zoellick noted that “India has had a relatively stronger rebound than others”.
Asked whether India had just saved itself and not contributed to the latest signs of a global economic recovery, Mr. Zoellick, now here to brief APEC leaders, said: “What India has done for its own economy is good for the world economy. The growth of India is important as part of the overall global recovery. I don’t want to see China’s actions [too] as inconsistent with its global role. In fact, I see them as a support.”
