India,Egypt form group to cooperation on environmental issues

India and Egypt have decided to form a Joint Working Group for cooperation in the field of environment, climate change, urban waste management and environmental education.
While extending its full support to African nations in fighting the challenge of climate change, India also said that it will "always echo" African aspirations and partner with the nations.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar who returned to India after attending the African Ministerial Conference on Environment in Cairo on March 4-6, also reiterated that various issues should be resolved at the earliest for the upcoming UN climate conference scheduled at the end of the year in Paris, to succeed.

"India and Egypt decided to form a Joint Working Group for cooperation in environment and climate change and to operationalise the MoU which was entered into between the two countries earlier. It will consist of concerned officers of India and Egypt and the first meeting will be held in the near future in India," an Environment Ministry statement said.
It said that the group will discuss and finalise the areas of cooperation in the fields of climate change, urban waste management, hazardous waste management, environmental education and all other facets of environmental governance between the two countries.
Noting that India's stand on climate change is "mostly" the same as that of the African Union, Javadekar said that India will "stand by" African countries.

"The developed world must take action immediately as time is short and the world must act fast. If we want Paris Convention to succeed, we need to sort out issues in time," he said.