After tough negotiations, the first official draft at the climate meet in Copenhagen has been firmed up which says that developing nations shall take appropriate mitigation actions with the support of finance and technology from the developed world, a key demand advocated by India.
US chief negotiator Todd Stern, who arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, said the US is committed to getting the 'strongest political agreement' at Copenhagen for which 'a real commitment from China' was a major necessity.
India on Tuesday favoured a legally binding climate change agreement from the developed countries, saying a political pact will not be 'enforceable', even as it asserted that its voluntary reduction of carbon emission intensity was not announced under pressure.
A top US delegate at Copenhagen summit denied the possibility that hacked e-mails had made the case for sceptics stronger and said the incident would not affect the fate of climate change bill in the American Senate.
India decided to cut down its carbon emission intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020 in the run up to the Copenhagen summit, shortly after a similar declaration by China.
Attacking the so-called 'climategate' affair as a bid to undermine the capability of his organisation, Rajendra Pachauri said at the opening ceremony that those who had hacked into the e-mails of top climate scientists were out to discredit the scientific assessment made of threats to the climate.
Major nations in the group are concerned over several drafts of a potential agreement that are floating around including the Danish proposal, which is yet to be fully disclosed.
Chairperson of Ad Hoc Working group on Kyoto Protocol, John Ashe, said parallel negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol are being carried on at the conference and will be wrapped on December 15 after which a report will be presented.
Ahead of the key climate summit here, representatives of the G-77 group of developing nations and China spent two days in a conference room in Copenhagen, discussing their strategy for the meeting and speculating on possible outcomes and their position on specific issues.
The recovery in the second half of 2009 would be largely due to the hefty stimulus packages.
On Monday, the Conference will kick off in the Danish capital, and in two weeks, negotiators from over 100 countries are expected to produce a document that captures agreement on key political fronts to tackle climate change that will be worked into a legally binding treaty early next year.
American couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who gate-crashed into a State Dinner on Tuesday, came face to face with United States President Barack Obama as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the event, in the White House. A White House picture posted on several US websites showed the reality TV stars being greeted by Obama at a reception line with Manmohan Singh standing alongside.
Prime Minister Singh highlighted the five Es -- economy, energy, environment, education and empowerment -- that forms a critical part of the 'next phase' of the relationship between the two countries.
The American media, over the past few days, has covered the flair and panache of first state dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, more than the politics of the visit.
Noting that India's rapid growth is a critical engine of global economy, PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi has said the business community in the United States was eager on playing an active role in the country's future economic development.
A Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) Access Agreement signed between the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
With India's patience running out, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Thursday asked his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi about the progress into the Mumbai terror attacks case and sought a quicker trial."I made enquiries about the progress they (Pakistan) have made about bringing to justice those who were responsible for the attack in Mumbai," said Krishna about his meeting with Qureshi in Kabul.
The report, Facing a changing world: Women, Population and Climate, released in the United Nations, stressed that the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on one dollar a day or less are women, and they have so far been overlooked in the Climate Change debate.
India has the largest number of stunted children below the age of five in the world, according to the latest United Nations Children's Fund report. Approximately 200 million children, under the age of five, suffer from stunted growth in the developing world. The report 'Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition' found that stunting is primarily caused due to childhood under-nutrition, which contributes to more than a third of all deaths in children under five.
While Shah is a former analyst at the Moody's Investor Service, Shankar who has already pleaded guilty is a former proprietary trader at Schottenfeld Group in New York.
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