India proposes bilateral talks with EU, US on climate change

India has proposed bilateral dialogue with the US and EU on the issue of climate change on the lines of one it is set to hold with China later this month, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

The proposal in this regard to both the Europeans and the Americans was made last week, Ramesh said here yesterday.

This would be on the lines of the first India-China energy dialogue scheduled to take place in New Delhi on October 21, he said.

The meeting with China, Ramesh said, has nothing to do with Copenhagen negotiations in December on climate change.

"It has to do with the actions of both the governments in climate change. This is the first consultations. I hope we are able to make it an annual affair," he said.

"I would like to have similar dialogue not only with the Chinese but also with the Europeans and the Americans. I have proposed this last week, both to the Europeans and the US that we can have an annual climate change policy consultation where we discuss technical details, broad technical areas of implementation of national action plan on climate change," Ramesh said.

This is for the first time that China and India are having a bilateral dialogue on climate change.