Sustainable growth not at cost of poor, India says

Efforts to put the global economy on a sustainable path must not be at the cost of the poor, India today said and asked developed countries to take a lead in committing to technology transfer for developing nations to achieve balanced growth.
Speaking at a UN Environment Conference in Nairobi, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar also said that the proposed amount for the Green Climate Fund should be utilised in purchasing green technologies and it should provided to the developing countries free of cost.
"It has been agreed to establish Green Climate Fund of US USD 100 billion per year by 2020. This amount should be utilised to purchase Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of most crucial technologies for public good and these technologies should then be freely available to the developing countries to facilitate sustainable development," he said at the Ministerial Plenary of the First UN Environment Assembly.

Javadekar said that developed countries must provide enhanced financial resources, technology transfer and capacity-building support to developing countries to meet the vast requirements of sustainable development.
"Our efforts to put the global economy on a sustainable path must not be and cannot be on the backs of the poor. The wide difference between the average per capita consumption of energy and other resources in the developed and developing countries as also the huge wastage of food at consumer level in developed countries makes it imperative for developed countries to take the lead to shift towards Sustainable Production and Consumption (SCP) patterns.

"The developed countries have to lead from the front and commit technology transfer to developing countries for them to achieve this," Javadekar said.

The environment minister rued the fact that "not much progress" has been made on the issue of technology transfer despite the fact that the Rio+20 document mandates relevant UN agencies to identify options for a facilitation mechanism that promotes the development, transfer and dissemination of clean and environmentally sound technologies.
"India strongly feels that technology transfer is the most important means of implementation and an effective and functional Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) is a must for a meaningful Post-2015 Development Agenda," he said.

He said that the TFM should meet the technology transfer needs of developing countries in various sectors like health, energy, food, water, sanitation and others.
"The developing countries need to be assisted in technology needs assessment, adaptation, rollout and human and institutional capacity building," Javadekar.
Javadekar said that India attaches utmost importance to the evolution of the post-2015 development agenda and strongly believes that it must be an agenda for development which can propel sustained and inclusive economic growth in all countries, particularly developing countries.