Climate: Good deal,says Jairam; to address RS

Ramesh,who was part of the Indian negotiating team,earlier said on the outcome of the crucial negotiations in the Danish Capital that the accord was “a good deal”. Indian officials have also noted that the US-brokered deal had addressed India’s concerns adequately,although some improvements could be made.

“The red lines have been met,” Prime Minister’s Climate Change envoy Shyam Saran said,noting that India did not have to compromise on any of its fundamental stands on the issue.

Ramesh is likely to tell Rajya Sabha that India’s sovereignty was well protected in Copenhagen and that some of the red lines he had expressed in his Parliament speech ahead of Copenhagen talks have not been transgressed. The minister is understood to have taken the view that the Copenhagen Accord is the first good step holding that it was good for India,the world and good for Earth. Ramesh had earlier said the Indian side “had very fruitful discussions with Obama” and that “India has a good deal”.

At Copenhagen,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there is no question of making India’s unilateral commitments “internationally legally binding”. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said there was no question of making our unilateral commitments internationally legally binding,we will reflect them in an international agreement in a suitable way but we are not going to take any internationally legally binding commitments. That is simply not on the cards,” Ramesh said in Copenhagen,quoting the PM as having said.

Rajendra Pachauri,chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,meanwhile described the accord as “an agreement that will really not be the final word. “We will have build on it,we will have to make sure it moves quickly towards the status of a legally binding agreement and therefore I think the task for the global community is cut out,” the head of the Nobel-winning UN panel of climate scientists told a TV channel.