Surrender in Cancun,Modi tells PM

Chief Minister Narendra Modi has written a letter to the Prime Minister alleging that the stand taken by the Centre at the Cancun climate change meet compromises national sovereignty.

In a press release on Tuesday,Modi asked the PM to involve the chief ministers for defining the national commitment for climate change before submitting the same for international negotiations. This is a compromise with respect to national sovereignty. About 70 to 80 per cent of mitigation and adaptation work on climate change is done at the state level,but so far no mechanism has been put in place to involve the CMs in a consultative process before deciding on the countrys national approach on climate, he said.

He said the stand at the Cancun summit on the countrys domestic climate actions is contrary to the governments previous commitments to Parliament. Modi referred to news reports on measurement,reporting,verification,international consultations and analysis of Indias domestic climate actions as discussed at Cancun.

This is not the first time though that Modi has raised the issue of Indias stand on climate change. During the 2009 Copenhagen summit,he had talked about including state governments to prepare emission standards. This time he has taken up the subject of mitigation and adaptation work.

Incidentally,the state government claims to be the first in Asia and the fourth provincial government in the world to have a separate Department of Climate Change. The department functions under the state department of environment and has an annual budget of Rs 5 crore. The Delhi state government has also plans for a climate change department,which it has outlined as the Climate Change Agenda for Delhi 2009-12.

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