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India not changing goal posts on climate change: PM | India is not changing its goal posts on the issue of climate change and is ready to contribute to the global campaign for emission reduction on the "principle of equity", said Shyam Saran, the Special Envoy of the Indian Prime Minister on Climate Change here. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that New Delhi favours an equal sharing of the global emission burden reduction. Seeking to bring clarity to the Prime
Minister's statement, Saran said: "It is okay to talk about those global targets,
but unless you accompany those global targets with a clear understanding about
how a burden is going to be shared among developed and developing countries, this
will not confirm to the principle of equity." "So, it is not that the Prime Minister
was signing on to emission reduction targets for India. What he was saying was
that as far as the global goal is concerned, to which we are ready to contribute
with whatever resources are available to us, which we are already doing. But,
if we are expected to do more, then unless there is support available in terms
of finance, technology or in terms of capacity building, we will not be able to
do this," he added. Leaders of the 53-nation Commonwealth primarily discussed
how to fight global warming ahead of December 7-18 Climate Summit in Copenhagen
Intervening during a special session on climate change at the Commonwealth Heads
of Government Meeting here, Singh had expressed India's willingness to sign on
to an ambitious global target for emissions reductions, but with an equitable
burden-sharing paradigm. Dr. Singh then warned: "Climate change is becoming the
pretext for pursuing protectionist policies under a green label. This would be
contrary to the UNFCCC and a violation of the WTO as well. India and other developing
countries will strongly resist this." "We are only days away from the convening
of the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
in Copenhagen. India has repeatedly emphasized the need for the Copenhagen outcome
to be comprehensive, balanced and above all, equitable," he added. "It must be
comprehensive in the sense that it must cover all the inter-related components
of mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology. This means we should resist
a partial outcome. Furthermore, there must be balance and equal priority given
to each of the four components. Mitigation is important, but cannot take precedence
over adaptation which, for many countries represented here, poses a greater challenge,"
Dr. Singh said. He added: "And most important from our perspective, is the need
to ensure an equitable outcome corresponding to the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities and respective capabilities." Nearly half of the Commonwealth's
members are small island states, and developing nations have been appealing for
hefty financial aid from rich governments to help them counter climate change
and reduce carbon pollution. While next month's U.N. talks are not expected to
result in an immediate approval for a detailed climate treaty, the wording of
the Commonwealth climate declaration has made it clear that its leaders expect
that any deal reached at Copenhagen would be 'operationally binding' on all nations
and lead quickly to a definitive treaty. The three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM) began in Port of Spain on Friday. Around half of the 53-nation
Commonwealth group, mainly former British colonies, are island nations scattered
across the world's oceans. Some of these fear they could be swamped or even literally
wiped off the map in the coming decades if sea levels rise as a result of worsening
climate change. The climate treaty to be adopted as a final text next year, will
replace the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012. India, however, is of the emphatic
view that obligations related to the climate change issue will and should go beyond
the year 2012. The Indian Prime Minister has said the protocol will not expire
in 2012 as was being thought in some quarters. Rather, 2012 would mark the end
of the first commitment period for developed country parties to fulfil their legally
binding obligations to reduce their economy-wide emissions by a specific quantified
figure. He has said that there is a need for developed countries to sign on to
more significant obligations in the second commitment period commencing in 2013,
as despite the efforts of the developing country parties to the Protocol, no progress
has been achieved in fulfilling the mandate of the Working Group on Kyoto Protocol,
which has been meeting for the past three years. "The attempts by some countries
to dispense with the Kyoto Protocol altogether has generated avoidable misgivings
and has been strongly resisted by all developing countries without exception.
We hope that a legally valid instrument, to which we too are parties, will not
be set-aside in a cavalier manner. This will undermine credibility in any future
legally binding instrument," Dr. Singh said. There are suggestions here that the
Indian Prime Minister will travel to Copenhagen for the summit around the middle
of next month. Earlier reports have said that he may just depute Minister of State
for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh and his Special Envoy Shyam Saran to
pitch India's views firmly at the global interaction. |
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