Rich Nations Shy From Commitment at Rio Earth Summit

Rio de Janeiro: As the Earth Summit began Wednesday, India had more than one reason to be happy, with its main concerns addressed in the draft of the declaration to be adopted by the 90 global leaders here Thursday, but felt let down by rich nations for lack of commitment in funding green programmes.

"One significant development has been the restoration of the centrality of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities," said India's Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who is assisting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also here, at what is also called the Rio+20 Summit.

Her reference was to the demands of poor and developing economies that rich countries, which are seen as having been primarily responsible for the present environmental degradation, must share a greater burden in restoring the health of our planet.

"Equity and its manifestation -- the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities -- are at the heart of international cooperation for sustainable development. We are glad that we have collectively agreed on this key issue," Natarajan told journalists at a briefing session.

But India felt saddened by the lack of firm commitment by the rich nations on how to fund schemes, technologies and programmes that will result in making planet Earth greener and promote growth and inclusion in a sustainable manner. But that was not expected given the current global economic crisis.

"While we remain disappointed with the weak political will in developed countries to provide enhanced means of implementation to developing countries, we are glad we have agreed to set up two important mechanisms -- one for technology transfer and another for finance," Natarajan said.