For a change, and climate change that is, lawyers today talked on the issues other than legal ones. They spoke on how the climate change issue was not just about more development, but doing it differently with stricter green rules in place and the need for a stringent pro-environment legal framework for the country. As in the words of leading lawyer F.S. Nariman, development is more about planning for climate change, rather than responding to it. Speaking at a national conference on "Climate change and role of law,' Nariman said each country in its attempt for ever-faster economic growth would like to pollute without restrain, but tragic consequences of climate change would be borne by world's poorest children. "This is the tragedy about which this seminar is all about and we lawyers have a duty to put our heads to it and see what we can come up with,' he said in his presidential address at the conference organised by the Bar Association of India. Citing the example of the Climate Change Bill that has put the UK at the very front of global efforts to tackle climate change, Nariman questioned why India could not be the second country in the world to establish such a legal framework. "Creating such a framework is an enormous challenge for the government and the present debate and your views will help determine the final shape of proposals by NGOs and by the government to tackle the ogre of climate change,' he added. Aimed at examining different issues around climate change and global warming and the role of legal fraternity, during this two-day conference, lawyers are discussing issues like air quality, water management and global warming and legalities associated with it. Since climate change is an issue that will directly affect the rule of law, the focus of the conference will be to bring more clarity in green laws while urging for proper machinery to ensure that laws are implemented stringently. The conference was inaugurated this morning by former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma and will conclude on Saturday with keynote address by law student Diksha Sharma on "Do not sacrifice our future'. At the end of the seminar, a Delhi Declaration on climate change and the role of law will also be signed, urging the government to take immediate action to deal with threat of climate change. The document will be circulated in the government, judiciary and at international level. Incidentally, to participate in the conference lawyers did not have to pay the registration fee. This, as per honorary general secretary of the association Lalit Bhasin, had been done to encourage maximum participation in the conference from the legal fraternity, involving as many members as possible in the lawyer's climate change programme. While giving the welcome speech, Bhasin talked of updating the current legal systems by taking into account complexities of climate change. Giving the example of the India's existing Environment Policy 2006, he said the Act needs to be revisited to encompass various effects in context of climate change and should instead be re-christened as the climate change policy.