L’Aquila (Italy)- INDIA S VIEW ON CLIMATE CHANGE AT SUMMIT

L’Aquila (Italy), July 8: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today stepped in to articulate the developing world’s concerns on climate change and the global financial crisis after Chinese President Hu Jintao left the G8/G5 summit abruptly to tackle a domestic crisis.

“As responsible members of the international community, we recognise our obligation to preserve environment. But climate change cannot be addressed by perpetuating the poverty of developing countries,” Singh said. This is a sharp retort to the developed nations’ goading to the developing countries on their compliance requirements.

Speaking after a meeting of G5 leaders (China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India) at L’Aquila, Singh also foregrounded the concerns of the developing world arising out of the economic downturn.

“The developing countries have been worst affected by the weakened global economy.... We will stress tomorrow the importance of maintaining adequate flow of finance to the developing countries and also of keeping markets open by resisting protectionist measures,” the Prime Minister said.

The G5 leaders are scheduled to hold summit sessions with G8 leaders beginning tomorrow. There are apprehensions, some of them playing out already in the West, that the downturn will be used as a shield to raise more protectionist barriers.

At a joint media conference, the G5 leaders strongly echoed the views of Singh on both climate change and protectionism.

In an evocative message to the West, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said: “We know who is liable for more pollution. The rich countries must agree to contain greenhouse gas emissions. We, developing nations, do not want to be treated as second class citizens of the world. We, too, want to go to the top floor.”

A G8-backed proposal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is believed to have been opposed by China and India; the move implies huge emission cuts by the developing nations which claim that halving emissions would impede their industrial and economic growth.

The developing world, vanguarded by India and China, has been arguing that the rich nations must first set and achieve far higher emission reduction targets and afford the developing world newer renewable energy technologies.

Reuters said a draft document by 17 major economies, including India, dropped any reference to halving target and aimed instead for agreement on the need to limit the average increase in global temperature to 2°C since pre-industrial times.

The developed and developing nations are running against time on agreeing to new operational regimes on environment — the Copenhagen Conference on climate change is scheduled for December — and both sides were looking to the L’Aquila summit to provide some signal, if not determine the direction in which negotiations are headed

L'AUILA SU,MMIT- ITALY- CLIMATE CHANGE-SRI.MANMOHAN SINGH

Dr. Singh explained to Mr. Brown the Indian perspective on climate change and also handed him a note prepared in a question-and-answer form setting out the Indian position. India expects the industrial nations to come out with a stronger and specific commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as the mechanisms to fund the adoption of green technologies by the developing countries. In addition, it has sought the loosening of the intellectual property regime to enable developing countries to obtain green technology without paying high licensing fees.

The Prime Minister also suggested that India and the United Kingdom could jointly take a leadership role in the development of green technology projects. He invited the U.K. to participate actively in the New Delhi conference organised by the United Nations that ai

DRUG MAFFIA

Pfizer Violated Own Rules to Hide Depression Drug Studies

Pfizer is accused of “deception through concealment” and “cheating” in failing to disclose nine of 16 trials of an antidepressant, Edronax (reboxetine), in Germany. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care slammed Pfizer in a press release titled: Pfizer conceals study data; Drug manufacturer hinders the best possible treatment of patients with depression Essex Pharma was also noted for not being completely upfront about its antidepressant, mirtazapine, and the Institute praised GlaxoSmithKline in the same set of statements for providing a full database of studies for bupropion XL. Pfizer’s refusal to disclose its studies violates its own published policy about studies. That policy states: In all cases, study results are reported by Pfizer in an objective, accurate, balanced, and complete manner and are reported regardless of the outcome of the study or the country in which the study was conducted.

GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTING BIRDS,WILD LIFE AND HABITATS

How does global warming affect birds, other wildlife, and their habitats?

All organisms depend on their habitats for food, water, shelter, and opportunities to breed and raise young. Climate changes can affect organisms and their habitats in a myriad of ways. In fact, global warming impacts all life on earth, from individual organisms to populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. It can alter behaviors, population sizes, species distributions, plant and animal communities, and ecosystem functions and stability. How strongly different species will be affected varies, depending on differences in their ecology and life history. Species with small population sizes, restricted ranges, and limited ability to move to different habitat will be most at risk. Similarly, different habitats and ecosystems will be impacted differently, with those in coastal, high-latitude, and high-altitude regions most vulnerable.

When it comes to global warming, birds are like canaries in the coal mine, showing us that temperature increases are reshaping our ecology in potentially dangerous ways. According to a 2009 Audubon report, nearly 60% of 305 species found in North America in winter have been on the move over the last 40 years, shifting their ranges northward by an average of 35 miles, and in some cases by hundreds of miles.