Union Renewable and New Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said on Saturday that R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was being wrongly targeted by some sections, and they would soon realise their mistake.
“Recently Dr. Pachauri has come under a tremendous attack. People did not spare Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad when they spoke about harmony and good will. Mahatma Gandhi was also targeted for his good work. Today, Dr. Pachauri is being targeted. One day they will realise,” Dr. Abdullah said, speaking at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit here. The Centre stood firmly behind him, he said.
Dr. Pachauri is under attack for the IPCC report that had predicted that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. The claim was disputed by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests, headed by Jairam Ramesh, and some international experts.
Dr. Abdullah’s remarks comes a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr. Jairam Ramesh extended strong support to Dr. Pachauri at the conference. Dr. Pachauri has admitted that the prediction was a human error.
Dr. Abdullah highlighted a number of initiatives taken by the Centre to tap energy from non-conventional energy sources. The government, he said, planned to harness 20,000 MW of power from solar energy by 2022. It would also increase wind power generation by 2,000 MW a year.
He called for technology transfer from developed nations to developing countries to tackle climate change.
Australian Minister for Resource and Energy Martin Ferguson said the Copenhagen summit laid out a road map for cutting the global temperature. “We want to operationalise the accord with an emphasis on more research and development on the subject.”
