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| Obama calls climate change 'urgent challenge' | | | AGENCIES
WASHINGTON, Nov 19: Terming climate change an "urgent challenge", President-elect Barack Obama today said his administration will mark a "new chapter" in American leadership on combating the menace across the world and create five million "green jobs" in US that cannot be outsourced.
Obama said his administration will invest USD 15 billion every year to catalyse private sector efforts to build a clean energy future and that it will create about five million "green" jobs that cannot be outsourced, an apparent reference to India, which is an hub of back-end operations for many US companies.
"We will invest in solar power, wind power, and next generation biofuels. We will tap nuclear power, while making sure it's safe. And we will develop clean coal technologies," Obama said in a surpise video message to a the bi-partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles today.
"...And it will not only help us bring about a clean energy future, saving our planet. It will also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating five million new green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced," the President-elect said.
During his campaign, the Democract said he was opposed to outsourcing of US jobs.
Apart from the Governors and representatives of US sattes, officials from India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, the UK and others participated in the summit.
"...But too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership. That will change when I take office. My presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process," Obama said.
Obama appealed to world powers, including India and UK, to work together to meet the challenge in the coming years.
"The United States cannot meet this challenge alone. Solving this problem will require all of us working together," he said.
Obama said his administration will establish strong annual targets that set US on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80 per cent by 2050.
"Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security," Obama said in his message.
India seeks inter-governmental negotiations for UNSC membership
New York, Nov 19: Making a strong pitch for expansion of the powerful UN Security council in both permanent and non-permanent categories, India has called for immediate start of inter-governmental negotiations on the issue.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, its delegate Vijay Bahuguna, MP, firmly rejected the "minority" view that expansion only in the non-permanent category would suffice, saying this "unrealistic" argument has already been proved wrong by the history.
"We should not forget that we had expanded the Security Council in 1965 with addition of only non-permanent members, but problems with the Council have only exacerbated," he told the delegates.
Non-permanent members, he said, have not been able to implement their ideas or prevent encroachment of the Council in areas beyond its competence under the Charter nor improve its decision-making process. Nor have they been able to enhance the participation of countries contributing troops to peace-keeping operations in the decision making, he added.
India along with Japan, Germany and Brazil, known as Group of four or G-4, is a strong contender for the permanent slot in the Security Council. "Uniting for Consensus (UFC)," a group led by Pakistan and Spain, opposes expansion in the permanent category, saying that they do not want to create more centers of power.
It is self-evident, Bahuguna said, that real change and improvement can come only through inducting new permanent members through the principles of election and subsequent accountability to the wider membership through an appropriate review mechanism. |
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