US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due in the Indian capital hoping to narrow a wide gap with her hosts on fighting climate change ahead of a high-stakes conference later in the year.

In her first visit to India since becoming chief US diplomat in January, Clinton broached the subject on Saturday with business leaders in Mumbai, India's financial hub, and will follow it up on Sunday in New Delhi.

Accompanied by her special climate envoy, Clinton started on a light note at a meeting with tycoons including Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, which deals in oil and gas exploration among other business.

"I was amused to read one of the reporters saying, 'Todd Stern: What is he doing here??'," Clinton said after reading an Indian newspaper.

Before leaving for India, Clinton said that she and Stern "hope that we can, through dialogue, come up with some win-win approaches" on combating climate change.

The Washington administration is also looking toward a December summit in the Danish capital Copenhagen intended to secure a new international agreement on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

But India — like fellow developing heavyweight China — has refused to commit to carbon emission cuts in the new treaty until developed nations, particularly the United States, present sufficient targets of their own.

New Delhi has consistently said any pact should not hinder the economic growth of developing countries.

Reliance Industries' Ambani argued that India and the United States need to establish "self-sustaining institutions" to produce clean technology, rather than debating who has the right to pollute and how much.

"The time is now, and my perception is, the Indian corporate (world) is ready to do more," he said, prompting excitement from Clinton, who asked: "How do we operationalise it?"

Amrita Patel, head of the National Dairy Development Board, took the United States and the West to task.

"The West, having consumed most of the resources, has to drive it (the climate change fight)," Patel said, echoing official positions. "There is a moral responsibility that the US has."

Clinton said that President Barack Obama's administration has begun to take action on climate change, after his predecessor George W. Bush played down the the problem.

As she did during a visit to China, which has overtaken the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, Clinton acknowledged that the United States had "made mistakes" in its own industrial advance.

She has also defended the right of emerging countries to improve their living standards.

But she added: "We also hope that a country like India, which is growing and mobilising so much development, will not make the same mistakes."

Although she did not expect the world to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to fighting global warming, she said: "There does have to be a framework that India and China in particular sign on to that produces results."

Clinton will on Sunday visit the ITC hotel chain's Green Building, the first non-commercial complex in India to be awarded a platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating, the highest given by the US Green Building Council.

The building is designed to use as much natural light as possible, has windows that allow in light but not heat in order to reduce the need for energy-consuming air conditioners, and has a water recycling plant.

AFP

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