Bhubaneswar, Aug. 26: Britain's minister of state for international development Desmond Swayne today called for a strong climate control regime in India to usher in a better environment.
Speaking on the sidelines of the inaugural event of "Celebrating partnerships: UK in Odisha'', Swayne hoped that India would come up with a climate control strategy at the Paris summit in December.
He said the British Parliament had already framed a stringent climate control legislation to ensure a better environment. The minister said that an 11-member British business delegation, currently in the city, would hold talks with senior administrative officials of the state government on different projects related to reforms in energy sector, skill development for jobs and economic prosperity, urban development, meaningful planning, air and water quality management, mineral processing, solid waste management, public and mass transport, domain expertise, knowledge-sharing and consultation.
Today's event was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the presence of British deputy high commissioner, Calcutta, Scott Furssedonn-Wood and others.
"Our tax revenue has increased to more than Rs. 16,000 crore in the financial year 2013-14 from about Rs 4,000 crore in 2004-05. The UK government is also supporting our state administration in automating the supply chain of the public distribution system and paddy procurement in all districts. It is also a major partner in the health sector,'' Naveen said.
The chief minister assured that the new industrial policy resolution (IPR) would help investors substantially as it provided a corpus for development of infrastructure.
"We have introduced specific timeframe for each of the IPR services under the Public Service Delivery Act," he said.
BJD MP from Balangir, Kalikesh Narayan Singhdeo, who is also a prominent member of the Climate Parliament Group (Indian chapter), said: "In association with the DFID, a low carbon environment planning has been set afoot in the Balangir region and similar models can be used for other regions as well.''
The group is a body of parliamentarians across the globe on climate change.
Stating that both the 480km coastline of the state and its hinterland are likely to be affected following drastic alterations to the climate conditions, Kalikesh called for the optimum use of non-conventional energy sources to reduce carbon footprints.
Later talking to The Telegraph, he said: "The debate over the carbon burden sharing by the developed nations and demand to bring down emissions by the developing nations apart, each nation should be aware of the climate change effects and must have a sustainable approach.''
Furssedonn-Wood said: "Education sector is also a prime area of focus for us as the UK government has sanctioned 600 full scholarships to Indian students this year, while an average of around 20,000 students are going to UK for higher studies every year.''
