Seeking to set at rest reports of differences with two key negotiators of the Indian team over the country offering unilateral concessions without obtaining any reciprocity and attempts to water down the Prime Minister’s per capita approach, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday that he held “discussions with them, and they continued to be [a] valued part of the negotiating team to guide us at Copenhagen and beyond.”
“We met to discuss negotiation nitty-gritty and other issues relating to reciprocity from developed countries for our unilateral announcements on emission intensity, per capita and other things,” Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu following reports that the key negotiators, Chandrasekhar Dasgupta and Prodipto Ghosh, who was also the former Union Environment and Forests Secretary, had pulled out after “some issues arising” out of an interview in an English daily.
However, by the end of the day, both the negotiators were taken on board after the Minister was said to have held a two-hour breakfast meeting with them at which he assured them that the carbon emission intensity cuts (20-25 per cent by 2020) announced in the Lok Sabha on Friday were voluntary and not legally binding, there would be no international verification of domestically funded mitigation actions and there was no dilution of the Prime Minister’s per capita approach.
“I met the Minister this morning to clarify certain issues and I am now going to Copenhagen on Tuesday with clarity about the negotiation brief,” Mr. Ghosh told The Hindu .
Mr. Dasgupta said in a statement: “I delayed my departure for Copenhagen in order to consult the Environment Minister on some issues arising from his interview carried by a newspaper yesterday.
“It has been incorrectly reported that I was concerned about our emission intensity forecast. In fact, my main concern is that we have been offering unilateral concessions, without obtaining any reciprocity. My other concern is over elements of the interview which seem to water down the Prime Minister’s per capita approach, the Prime Minister’s position on technology transfer and IPR, and our rejection of international verification or review of our domestically funded mitigation actions (recently re-iterated in Parliament as a non-negotiable element that cannot be “modulated” except under two specific conditions).
The last is important because, unlike many other international agreements, the climate change convention does not require reviews or any other type of consultations for domestic actions of developing countries.
“On the basis of certain assurances offered by him, I now plan to fly to Copenhagen in the next few days to assist our delegation in whatever way I can under the circumstances.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was going to Copenhagen to attend the climate summit “under pressure from the developed countries.”
“The Prime Minister has now decided to go to Copenhagen, which was earlier not part of his schedule. It was the developed countries which, in the two weeks, insisted on his visit to Copenhagen,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said.
He said the Prime Minister would miss a month-long Parliament session for the third time because of his foreign visits, including the sudden visit to Copenhagen. The Prime Minister visited the U.S. and Port of Spain in the last week of November and is now on a visit to Russia.
Mr. Jaitley also questioned India’s unilateral decision to cut up to 25 per cent in emission intensity by 2020, saying the developed world had not done enough, but expected the developing countries to take these measures.
