Prime Minister has said India looks forward to working closely with the global community to address the real challenges like growing populations, changing consumption patterns and the pressure on precious natural resources. Addressing the inaugural session of Delhi Sustainable Development Summit in the National Capital today Dr Manmohan Singh said the present global inequities built into the global economic order are patently unsustainable. He said the country has to share the ecological and economic space of the Earth. This in turn will demand re-engineering the country's economies in ways that are both frugal and innovative in their use of scarce resources.

The Prime Minister said climate change has become the face of many challenges in the pursuit of sustainable development. Stating that the problem can only be tackled through coordinated global action, Dr Singh said it is crucial to look at sustainable development from a flobal rather than a purely national perspective. He said India is committed to meting its domestic mitigation goal of reducing the emissions intensity of the country's GDP by 20 – 25 per cent by the year 2020 compared with 2005 levels. He said India has already taken several major steps on the path of low carbon growth. Now is the time for richer industrialized countries to show that they too are willing to move decisively along this path.

Dr Singh said if they fail to do that in the commitments, they will make under the Kyoto Protocol and other agreements, then it will be difficult to persuade governments, industry and the general public in India and other developing countries to step up the pace at which they are moving on this path.