New Delhi, December 11
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh faced flak from his Cabinet colleagues last night for announcing emission intensity cuts, but was rescued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who supported him at the ongoing Copenhagen climate change summit.
Ramesh left for the Danish capital last night to participate in deliberations while the Prime Minister will be there on December 18, the final day of the summit.
Union ministers Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma raised queries about his announcement of emission intensity cuts when a note on India’s position on climate change was circulated to keep the ministers informed. The Opposition as a “sell-out” has already slammed the government’s decision.
The Prime Minister, however, silenced them by pointing out that the matter had been discussed and it was important to give flexibility to the environment minister during the negotiations. He added that India did not want to land up in the same position by adopting a rigid stance as it did during the WTO discussions. Interestingly, Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath’s position as Commerce Minister in the last government had led to the collapse of the Doha round of talks while his predecessor Anand Sharma had spoken of a return to the negotiating table.
In his intervention last night, Kamal Nath, who had led the Indian delegation at the 1992 international conference on environment at Rio de Janeiro, wondered if India was reopening the Kyoto protocol by its unilateral decision to reduce its emission intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020.
Stating that the country’s emissions intensity is already lower than other emerging economies, Kamal Nath hoped this declaration would not constrain India’s growth or weaken its negotiating position at the summit. In order to push up its GDP, he said, India had to strengthen its infrastructure and manufacturing sectors, which would increase its emissions. He hoped India’s efforts in this direction would not be stymied.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma pointed out that although India has clarified that the emission intensity cuts, it had announced, were voluntary and not open to international scrutiny, they would be “morally binding’ as the world would expect the country to deliver on these commitments. Pointing towards the move to back these commitments with a law, Sharma said these would become automatically binding on the country.
In response to these reservations, it was decided to alter the text in India’s position paper that said India’s actions on emission intensity cuts would be put before the international community for consideration. The word “consideration” was changed to read “put up for its information”, as it precludes any kind of intervention from the developed nations.
