I am happy to welcome all of you to the first meeting of this Council on Climate Change. We had met in June to discuss the Indian response to Climate Change in the wake of the unequivocal findings of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change that global warming is a validated fact. At that meeting it was decided that an inter sectoral forum should be created as a National Council for Climate Change given our dependence and vulnerability vis-à-vis monsoons, dependence on the Himalayan snow-fed rivers, our large coastline and the growing needs of the economy that puts pressure on natural resources. Even as we forge an international consensus on dealing with climate issues which are truly beyond geographic boundaries of nation states, the consensus has been that we need to develop in parallel, a national agenda for adaptation.

As decided in our last meeting, most importantly we need to document the work we have done in following a less-energy intensive path to develop. From the First Plan itself, we laid stress on hydro and nuclear energy and decades ago promoted solar, bio-mass and other non-conventional and renewable energy sources which has put us on the pathway to reduction in carbon emissions. We must at the same time explore ways of new and greener ways of development. I suggest that we deliberate on how we can put together a National Programme Document by November, 2007 capturing both the efforts that we have made so far and our plans for the future. The first tangible output of our Council must be the production of such a national programme for action. As a prelude to this we must prepare a national report on the Impact of Climate Change. This will help to prepare the public for the steps that may have to be taken and also provide a strong scientific basis for the national programme.

It is a matter of satisfaction that India was in the forefront of the development of the Clean Development Mechanism and now we are the largest global player in CDM in terms of number of projects. China is ahead of us in terms of CERs mainly because they have huge HFC (Hydro Fluoro Carbon) projects. The Indian National CDM Authority has accorded host country approval to over 667 projects facilitating an investment of nearly Rs.60,000 crores in sectors such as energy efficiency, fuel, industrial processes, municipal solid waste and renewable energy. Our national CDM authority should work more closely with Chambers of Commerce and Industry, develop competent bundling agencies in the country, as well as work closely with RBI and financial institutions to increase participation of the financial sector. I am given to understand that, of late our PSUs have started developing CDM projects and this trend needs to be accelerated. I would suggest that the Planning Commission should consider inbuilding a mechanism to incorporate CDM strategies in sectoral plans and proposals that it clears.

Intensification of adaptation efforts would require coordinated, planning and implementation between State Government and Ministries and therefore climate change should be made a critical parameter in plan formulation and investment decisions. Our challenge is both to build on our past track record and to address the global issue of climate change without compromising on the imperatives of poverty alleviation. Our national agenda must focus on understanding and mapping the monsoon at sub-regional levels. Technology development to respond to climate variability in agriculture to ensure food security and economic modeling in Indian circumstances to bring out the cost of adaptation and mitigation should also be central to our agenda.

We need to prepare a comprehensive road map for energy efficiency and sustainable development in major sectors like agriculture, forestry, industry, transport, power, housing and environment infrastructure. We now have a unique opportunity in the forestry sector to mount a major programme for greening. India has six million hectares of cultivable degraded forest land. Our Government plans to undertake a major afforestation programme called Green India for greening six million hectares of degraded forest land making it one of the world's largest afforestation efforts in recent times. The details of this programme are being worked out utilizing the funds levied from NPV on diversion of forest land and would be brought to the Cabinet soon. I hope we can launch this programme on the 15th August, 2007.

I am happy that our Ministries have started developing innovative ways to respond to the sectoral tasks on climate change. For example, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has suggested a Bachat Lamp Yojana which would provide Compact Fluorescent Lamps at the price of normal bulbs to domestic households. The price difference between the price of CFL and the price of the normal bulb would be recovered through the sales of carbon credits that accrue due to the lower energy consumption and carbon emissions of CFLs. I understand that this project could reduce 240 million tonnes of Co2 every year and lead to a reduction of 10,000 MW of electricity demand. I hope that we will be ready to launch this programme shortly preferably around the same time as we are launching the Green India programme.

Another major issue that I would like to flag for your consideration is the need to respond to the glacial melting of the Himalayas. Our food security comes largely from irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh whose rivers are fed by glacier melting in the Himalayas. The Himalayas are rightly called the "Water Tower of Asia" and contain the largest body of ice outside the polar regions providing critical dry season and long term water storage. 1.5 billion people live in the basins of rivers that rise in the Greater Himalayas. There is a gap in our understanding of the Himalayas and we need to build a knowledge-based partnership of affected countries to manage and develop the Himalayan region to bring economic prosperity, peace, social harmony and environmental sustainability to the region. As a concrete first step, we must identify knowledge institutions within the country that we can mandate for an agenda related to the Himalayas as well as identify other knowledge institutions with whom we could collaborate in knowledge-sharing.

I would now request the Ministry to make a brief presentation after which I also would request that all members give their valuable suggestions.