NEW DELHI: India is responding well to the challenge of global warming, said Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which is the joint winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The IPCC chairman, who also heads the Delhi-based think tank The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), said he was 'heartened' by the response of the Indian government to the challenge of climate change.
Addressing a crowded media conference on Friday hours after the Nobel prize winners were announced, Pachauri said a council has been set up to advise the prime minister on climate change.
"I hope this will lead to policies and actions," he added, saying that the IPCC was not a policy prescription body itself. "We are a scientific assessment organisation. We say what will happen. Then it is for the negotiators and policy makers to decide what to do."
Pachauri said India was already facing the effect of global warming.
"With glaciers melting at a very rapid rate, there is bound to be water scarcity, and we will have to learn to adapt to it."
IPCC and former US vice president Al Gore are the joint winners of the peace Nobel.
