India should take lead on climate change: UK official

NEW DELHI: In the wake of the ground-breaking deal on reducing emissions signed earlier this week between the US and China, a top UK official today said that her country wants to "see India there in the lead, showing direction" on climate change issues.

Welcoming the climate deal -- under which the US and China announced respective post-2020 goals of coping with climate change -- the UK's Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Baroness Verma, said it was a good start for addressing the issue of global warming and that "we should celebrate it".

Verma said that India should look to play a bigger role on climate change issues and offered the UK's support for the country in this regard.

Verma, who visited Jaipur, said she had "an extremely constructive dialogue" with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and top state government officials on opportunities for investment in the state, particularly in the renewable energy sector and on waste management issues.

She said she had also visited the Union Territory of Chandigarh where she called on Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and senior officials in the Haryana government.

She also met Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Delhi and discussed how British investment can come to Haryana in the renewable energy sector.

US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping earlier this week reported a breakthrough as they announced the climate deal.

"It is great to see China and America making positive proposals and going forward... We should celebrate the fact that China, with its incredibly quick growing economy, is recognising that they have to respond (to climate change)," Verma told reporters here.

Asked how the deal between the two biggest polluters was going to influence the outcome of the upcoming climate conference in Lima, she said, "It is a good signal... We need to have more... We need every country to be more ambitious."