Sunday, May 15, 2011

India’s Views deleted --UN climate change panel puts out ‘edited’ document – ToI – 14.5.11


Nitin Sethi | TNN


New Delhi: The government has drawn the attention of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) secretariat to the terms that was agreed upon at Cancun in December 2010, but have not been reflected in sections of the released document.
    The Union ministry of environment and forests had demanded a host of changes. However, the UNFCC only effected a few changes, and refused to rectify ‘mistakes’ in at least two important references. At the Cancun conference, India, along with almost all other countries, had agreed to decisions that moved the world towards a ‘pledge and review’ system and took the wind out of the Kyoto Protocol. The Indian delegation had argued, along with other developing countries, to insert
as many caveats as possible to block attempts by developed countries to extract more commitments.
    These were embedded in the document that the delegation, lead by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, had agreed to on the last day of the Cancun meet.
    Sections and phrases that are important for India have been left out. In one part, the countries had agreed that the international consultation and analysis of developed countries’ actions to reduce carbon dioxide would be more stringent than those for developing nations. The secretariat deleted this reference.
    Another reference keeping the debate on technology development and transfer alive has also been altered against developing countries’ wishes.
    Now, India has no option but to fight it out during negotiations when they restart in June.

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