India: Statement on Sustainable Development
New York, 25 October 2006: In statement by Rahul Gandhi, India outlined its views on international sustainable development governance, energy, biodiversity, intellectual property rights and small islands developing states. He said that if developing countries are to attain the goals and targets of Agenda 21 and JPOI, the international community must make the means of implementation available and create an international environment supportive of development. India said that as a result of globalisation, external factors contribute to the success or failure of developing countries to a greater extent than before. Developing countries are caught between intellectual property rights and trade regimes, as well as the conditionalities imposed by the World Bank and IMF, all of which erode their autonomy and flexibility. However, these countries need that autonomy and flexibility to evolve policies and strategies for economic growth and sustainable development, which is so critical to eradicating poverty and achieving Millennium Development Goals. India noted that the JPOI recognises good governance at the international level as fundamental to achieving sustainable development, and that it emphasises the need to address international finance, trade, technology and investment patterns that impact the development prospects of developing countries. He suggested that the report of the Secretary-General include a detailed analysis of actions taken at the international level for consideration at future sessions.
Regarding energy for sustainable development India said developing countries must have the policy space to address their energy needs in light of their individual circumstances. He stressed that all significant energy sources – whether conventional or advanced fossil fuels based, or renewables, or civilian nuclear power – must remain in policy reckoning to address energy needs for sustainable development and called for a fresh assessment of nuclear energy, as a clean and safe source of energy.
Regarding biodiversity India said it was particularly significant for developing countries that there be an international regime to protect and safeguard the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. India said the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer since Rio, and that critical technologies are beyond the reach of developing countries because of prohibitive costs under the existing IPRs regime. He said IPRs regimes must represent the tradeoffs between innovator incentives and wider human societal imperatives. He stressed the need to revisit the IPRs regime to ensure that technologies necessary for pursuing the global imperative of sustainable development are placed in the limited public domain and made accessible to developing countries. India proposed that the international community should also explore the possibility of establishing a Clean Technology Acquisition Fund to enable developing countries to access critical technologies.
On Small Island Developing States (SIDS) India said long-term attention in the areas of capacity building and resource transfer, to enable them to address the challenges of managing their compelling development priorities was needed.
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Source: India’s Mission to the UN, 2006