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ShareWashington: India and China are taking "a lot of action" to tackle the climate change but it is a challenge to make them agree to a binding international agreement in this regard, a top Obama administration official has said.
These remarks of Todd Stern, the Special US envoy on climate change, came yesterday during a special Congressional hearing on climate change, where some lawmakers alleged that the two countries were not willing to be part of the solution.
However, Stern, the Obama administration's Czar on climate change appreciated the steps being initiated by the two countries and their endeavour to be part of the solution.
"The thing that is really important to understand is that countries like China and India are actually doing a lot. They are not in the world any more of saying we don't have to worry about this problem, there is nothing that we have to do. They are taking a lot of action," Stern said at the hearing convened by the house of representatives' committee on foreign affairs.
"My guess is as you go forward in the years to come, they (India and China) are only going to ramp that up in very significant ways. Where they are resisting -- and it's a problem -- and it's a real problembut where they are resisting is in translating many of those actions that they're taking at the national level into an international agreement," he said."If you can't get those actions (by India and China) translated into an international agreement, you don't have an international agreement," Stern told the lawmakers in response to a question.
During his recent visit to the US, environment minister Jairam Ramesh had said that India was itself taking several measures on the climate change, but would not commit internationally through agreements.
"So that is a challenge" to make both India and China agree to a binding international agreement, Stern said. "We are working hard at it. We are pushing them to move in that direction. I think there has been some movement in the context of my own conversations with them.
"But, you know, there's five weeks to go (for the crucial Copenhagen meet on climate change), and I don't know yet where that's going to land. But it is not the case, and shouldn't be seen to be the case, that they are simply sitting back and not taking action. They are quite focussed on it," he said.
Stern assured the lawmakers that both India and China were on board with them on the issue of climate change.
Earlier in her remarks, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member of the Committee, said that China was now the world's largest producer of carbon emissions and India was racing up to catch it.
"These and other countries have repeatedly stated that they have no intention of adopting costly measures to address the situation, although they're happy to have the US, Europe and other developed countries do so," she said.
