Manmohan Singh assures Maldives of Indian help to be carbon neutral

Male (Maldives), Nov 12(ANI): India today reassured Maldives of help in tackling climate change and becoming a 'carbon neutral' country.

Addressing the Parliament of Maldives, the People's Majlis, in Male, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said: "We will help Maldives to achieve its aim of becoming carbon neutral. We will help build your capacities through sharing of energy efficiency technologies and provide scholarships for students from Maldives in areas such as coastal zone adaptation and management."

"We in India have made a number of commitments on climate change. One is to keep our per capita emission of greenhouse gases below the average for the industrialised countries. Secondly, we have committed to reduce the emissions intensity of our Gross Domestic Product by 20 percent between 2005 and 2020. We have launched eight national missions under our National Action Plan on Climate Change. The Green India plan seeks to regenerate six million hectares of degraded forest land."

"India will be a constructive participant in the global climate change negotiations based on the principles of common, but differentiated responsibility," he added.

Dr. Singh is currently in Maldives to attend the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit and to reinforce the cordial bilateral relations. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)