Extend Kyoto Protocol: India

India made it clear today that it wanted extension of the current Kyoto Protocol on emission cuts, but said it would not accept any further legally binding emission framework.

“Before we decide on a new legally binding framework,” said environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, “it is important to ensure that the existing framework does not crumble. There is at present a legally binding framework (Kyoto Protocol). We want it to continue.”

The statement comes ahead of the crucial 17th Conference of parties to the climate change convention at Durban in December. So far, India has maintained that while it would make all efforts to cut back on green house gas emissions and even report about this to its own Parliament, these would be voluntary.

The country has also pledged to strive to reduce emissions intensity of India’s GDP by 20-25 per cent by 2020 over 2005.

Natarajan maintained that India had done voluntarily “far more than developed countries” on the issue of carbon emission cuts, and sought to know from the developed nations about their efforts on this front “before we talk about any other legally binding commitment.”

The 2005-enforced Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed countries to cut emissions, expires at the end of 2012. The Protocol, signed by 193 parties till now, is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Its major feature is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-12.

Natarajan, briefing the media after attending the Informal Ministerial Consultations on Climate Change in South Africa’s Pretoria, had said the continuation of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol would be a key deliverable in the upcoming climate change dialogue in Durban. The meeting in Pretoria comes ahead of the climate change talks in Durban in December.

Countries are still divided on several issues ahead of the meeting to try and create a new mechanism to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Clearing India’s stand, Natarajan said, “As a developing country, India has already taken substantial and ambitious actions at great cost. The issue of a legally binding agreement has acquired huge political sensitivities in India. I am guided by a political consensus in my country which regards poverty eradication and sustainable development as the overriding priorities.”

Natarajan said India would talk to other developing countries on various issues ahead of the Durban meet.