Copenhagen: As negotiations on climate
change gathered momentum here, India has said it will play a
constructive role even as it slammed efforts of the developed
world to make domestic emission cut commitments of developing
nations legally-binding and verifiable.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh asserted that India`s
national voluntary domestic measures to tackle global warming
were not up for international scrutiny and progress on these
would be checked only by the country`s Parliament.
He made it clear that India will not agree to the concept
of "peaking", a clause incorporated in the first official
draft which mandates developing nations to cap their emissions
although it does not mention any time-frame for that.
Ramesh said the "peaking" clause will adversely impact
the development of rural electricity in the country which is
already facing a huge backlog in this area.
While ruling out any dilution of previously-stated "red
lines" drawn by India, the minister said he had "come here to
play a constructive, facilitative, leadership role to ensure
an effective and equitable agreement".
His comments came in the backdrop of a clash between
India and the European Union on the contentious issue of
making domestic commitments legally-binding and verifiable.
European Commission Director General Karl Falkenberger
said last night that EU expected India, China and other
emerging economies to report on their national mitigation
programmes which would be incorporated in an international
treaty.
"We need these contributions from everyone. We need them
in a legally-binding manner from everyone. Differentiated
commitments, we can accept, but it has to be verifiable,"
Falkenberger said.
The remarks drew objection from India, with senior
negotiator Chandrashekar Dasgupta noting that Falkneberger`s
position fell short of climate justice.
Sensing a bid to "change the rules of the game", he said
India was "seeking climate adequacy and climate justice".
India last week announced a series of climate mitigation
steps aimed at reducing emission intensity by 20-25 percent
by 2020 on the 2005 levels. It, however, made it clear that
these steps were voluntary and not legally-binding or open to
international scrutiny.
Underlining that every human being has an equal right to
resources of the atmosphere, Dasgupta said, "therefore you
have to take the per capita approach taking also into account
the historical emissions."
Pressing for "common but differentiated
responsibilities," he said the developed countries must
provide finances and technology so that developing countries
could fulfil their goals of mitigation.
"That is the question on which the answer has been
rather disappointing," he said.
Ramesh said that in all his discussions, the basic
objective was to highlight not only what India has done in
recent weeks pro-actively, voluntarily but also to underscore
the basic positions India will not compromise on even as it
engages in constructive negotiations," he said.
PTI
