‘Link development loans with environment’

While Summers was critical of the developed countries such as the United States for not being party to the Kyoto Protocol, he said that he failed to understand how development banks could finance middle income countries without linking the grants and loans to environmental issues. Summers said the “absence of the US (from the Kyoto Protocol) raises questions on its (Kyoto’s) efficacy”. He also said that even though the developed countries are chiefly responsible for the past emissions (75 per cent), the ball would be in the court of the developing countries in the years to come to address the problem.

Stressing on the need to develop world targets in this regard, he said developing countries like China and India should begin to try and meet the goal to reduce global emissions. The industrial world should put forth a concrete and transparent policies to work on reducing Green House gas emissions and global warming as an “international agenda”, he said.

Summers said there has to be “far greater commitment in funding of research in the reduction of Green House gas emissions”.