By endorsing the Copenhagen Accord at the just concluded U.N. climate meet, India has failed to protect the interests of the people most affected by climate change not only in India but worldwide, environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday.
Reacting to the Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s statement on India’s position at Copenhagen on climate change, it said India had shirked its responsibility to show leadership and let down the most impacted communities in the least developed countries and island states.
Prior to going to Copenhagen, Mr. Ramesh had said that India was the “most vulnerable” nation due to impacts of climate change. Over 700 million Indians are dependent on climate sensitive sectors and resources and by endorsing this Accord, India has failed to protect the interests of the people most affected by climate change, Greenpeace said in a statement.
While appreciating India’s willingness to report nationally on unsupported actions to Parliament, the Greenpeace said it was a good proactive step. “With this decision, India is showing transparency of its mitigation actions.”
However, India let the United States, European Union and other industrialised countries off the hook by not insisting on legally binding emission cuts by the developed nations. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Fourth Assessment Report had categorically stated that in order to keep temperature rise as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible, industrialised countries should cut their emissions by 20-49 per cent to 1990 levels by 2020 and this clearly did not happen, the statement said.
Industrialised countries have also not come up with a concrete proposal on how it would raise and operate the $100 billion to developing countries for adaptation and mitigation, it said.
