The Telegraph
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Jan. 20: The CPM has for the first time publicly acknowledged the threat posed to India by climate changes induced by global warming.
In the draft political resolution for its party congress, the CPM has blamed developed countries for the “disaster”.
“The primary cause for bringing the world to such a disaster has been the predatory capriciousness of global capitalism,” it said.
Mesmerised by the rapid industrialisation of the erstwhile Soviet Union and China that turned the two into superpowers, the Left had often turned a blind eye to ecological issues such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
But the draft makes a departure from such blind faith, though it glosses over ecological disasters associated with the socialist bloc.
Not only had developed countries enriched themselves through intensified exploitation of the developing world. The consequent climate change had also affected people in the developing world most adversely, it said.
“Climate change will affect rainfall, temperature and water availability, adversely affecting the livelihood of billions dependent on agriculture in the world. India will be one of the worst sufferers,” the resolution said.
The party noted that the US, which accounted for 16 per cent of global emissions, continued to defy international opinion to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
It urged progressive forces the world over to join hands and exert pressure on their governments and global negotiating forums to ensure that the US and other industrialised countries were set stiff emission targets.
Industrialised countries should also make adequate funds available to developing countries to adapt to climate change and adopt appropriate low-emission technologies that should be placed in the public domain, it said.
In drafting the document, the party quoted liberally from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Human Development Report 2007-08.
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