No compromise on India’s interest at Copenhagen: Govt

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh,who is leaving for Copenhagen on Thursday,denied the charges and said,”There is simply no compromise on India’s interest.”

Not satisfied,almost entire opposition including BJP,CPI-M,CPI,SP and AIADMK staged a walkout.

Leading the onslaught,Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said making a unilateral announcement of emission intensity cuts of 20-25 per cent ahead of the summit was a bad strategy.

“It is a bad strategy on the part of government. We have opened all our cards. Our disclosure has become a baseline for further negotiations. Even our negotiators appear to be sulking,” Jaitley said.

Senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the “suspicion is that it is happening under pressure”. He said this was evident from the White House statement of December 4 which said China and India have set a target to reduce carbon intensity.

Yechury,who will be part of the Parliamentary delegation to the summit,wondered whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s travel plans to Copenhagen was also under pressure. Jaitley said the new buzzword for the government is “flexibility”.

He said the country has been consistently following the per capita principle for cutting emissions. However,he said,the developed countries want a legally binding obligation on India. “This is totally unacceptable”.

The BJP leader said though Parliament was assured that there would not be substantial change on the issue,”now there is apprehension that the minister has altered the position substantially.”

D Raja (CPI) referred to a scheme called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of Forests.

He said when the government was not giving people secure rights to their lands and forests,”what is there to prevent companies or government agencies grabbing the same to earn carbon credits”.

Seeking to allay apprehensions,Ramesh said India would not deviate from its stated position that emission cuts should be on principle of per capita and historical responsibility.

The Kyoto Protocol,which is sought to be replaced by developed countries,follows the principle of per capita emission generation. Since India stands to gain by this principle because of its large population,the rich nations want to dump this basis.

On fears that the commitment of 20-25 emission cuts would lead to denial of electricity to the masses,Ramesh said,”If this emerges as a constraint,we will re-look it.”

He said India’s announcement of emission cuts was based on a Planning Commission mid-term review which had said that the country could take such a commitment without jeopardizing growth.

Dismissing the opposition charges,Ramesh said under no circumstances,emission cuts announced by India would be legally binding.

He said the domestic announcement particularly those not supported by any international financial help would not be subjected to scrutiny.

However,the country on its own would submit for “consideration” its domestic mitigation action to the UN under the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). He said in an open society like India,there was nothing wrong in it and India wanted to negotiate from a position of strength.

Government’s accountability was to Parliament alone,he said.

He also allayed apprehension that India would accept any peaking obligation. “India will not accept any draft that suggested peaking. This is simply not in our agenda,” he said.

Under the peaking plan,a country would be obliged to restrict its emission up to a threshold irrespective of its economic requirement.