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India asks West to give pledged aid to poor

India is lobbying developing countries to ensure that the developed world shares 0.7 per cent of their annual GNP (gross national product) pledged at Rio Earth Summit 10 years ago as Official Development Assistance with the poor nations.

"We will definitely impress on member countries that there should be no dilution of Agenda 21 - which provides for an action plan to sustain the path of development in the 21st century," Union Minister for Environment and Forests T R Baalu said in an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing World Summit for Sustainable development in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

"Agenda 21 is also an agreed body of principles that enables developing countries to move in the direction of achieving goals of sustainable development", Baalu said adding that instead of the 0.7 per cent of GNP pledged a decade ago only 0.22 per cent has been forthcoming.

Asserting that Agenda- 21 was non-negotiable and that's the stand we would be taking," he said: "We won't make any compromise on the guiding principles"

"Developing and developed countries have a common goal but America and other developed countries have a higher responsibility to ensure environmental protection and sustainable development of the developing countries.

"The developed countries are currently responsible for causing untold damage to the environment through the emission of greenhouse gases, over-consumption and other forms of pollution, Baalu said.

"There should be a mechanism to strengthen the global environmental facility so that money will flow to developing countries. We will also be pleading for new and additional resources for the developing countries; for the Global Environmental Facility to be strengthened and restructured and for technology transfer.

Baalu said there would be no re-negotiation as far as trade was concerned in terms of the Doha Declaration in which it was agreed that social issues such as child labour would not be linked to trade matters.

"We will not allow non-trade issues to be brought into trade sectors, Baalu, who has already had bilateral meetings with his counterparts from several countries like Israel, South Africa, Norway, Mexico and Britain said.

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