'Copenhagen accord has inbuilt hazards'

The Copenhagen accord on climate change was a partial success for India but it has certain “inbuilt hazards” of which the developing countries have to be wary, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

“The accord has certain inbuilt hazards and the developing world, especially India, has to be wary on those accounts. The foremost risk is that the developed world could demand an end to the Kyoto Protocol (based on the principle of equity),” Ramesh, who was here yesterday to review the progress of the Ganga river cleanliness programme, told reporters.

He, however, rejected the Opposition’s claim that the Copenhagen summit was a failure. “It is a partial victory for the BASIC Group comprising Brazil, China, India and South Africa when it wrested three important benefits from US President Barack Obama at Copenhagen,” Ramesh said referring to the two-week negotiations at the Danish capital.

The US gave in to our proposals on global goals and the legally non-binding nature of the accord, he said referring to India’s position of not accepting any binding cuts on emissions.

On monitoring and verification and, in particular, on the US proposal of analysis/assessment, Ramesh said: “We agreed for consultations and analysis which would respect national sovereignty.”

He said India bargained at the summit from the point of strength and “we did not enter into any binding agreement”.

“We had a laxman rekha (red lines) for us for the negotiations and we did not cross it, rather we created a space within that laxman rekha for collective bargaining with the US and others with support from BASIC countries,” Ramesh said.