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| 'India will renegotiate emission reduction target' |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jun 30, 2009, 17:16 IST |
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India today said that it would not "negotiate or renegotiate" the UN Framework on Climate Change but will "renegotiate" the emission reduction target which the developed nations have to take at the Copenhagen meet slated in December.
"We are not negotiating or renegotiating the UN Framework on Climate Change as expected by the industrialised nations. We are renegotiating the greenhouse gas emission reduction target which the developed countries have to take and we are in discussion with other nations like Brazil, China and G-77 on the issue," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference.
He maintained that there was no way India would take any legally binding emission reduction target "as by doing so we will be jeopardising our energy consumption target, transportation expansion and most importantly our agricultural and power production which is needed for poverty elimination".
Blaming the developed countries in failing to meet their targets, the minister pointed out that they took the responsibility of reducing their emissions by 5 per cent by the year 2020 as compared to 1990.
"But in actual there is almost 10 per cent increase in the GHG emissions. Therefore the target which has been set has not been met, what they had legally entered into as part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and later Kyoto Protocol."
Ramesh said, at least 36 developing countries, including India, have proposed an amendment to Kyoto Protocol asking the developed nations to bring down their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 with 1990 as the base year.
The move is aimed at making the developed countries more accountable for their GHG emissions. "The indicative targets for individual developed nations be based on the principle of historical responsibility," he said.
Ramesh also talked in detail about the steps being taken by India at the domestic level, framing of National Action Plan on Climate Change being a major step which has stressed on adaptation rather than mitigation.
"But we want to make clear that adaptation will be our main strategy but not mitigation as we cannot cut down our production in various sectors. Also whatever commitment we make at the local level are not for verification or scrutiny at the global forum," he added.
Only those areas will be under international scanning where we get funds or technology for mitigation and adaptation, Ramesh clarified.
He said that it was important that "we must stop looking at climate change as an international issue. It is a domestic issue which is related to water security, agriculture yields and energy consumption".
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