After Copenhagen talks, Ramesh to make statement in RS

Fresh from the world climate change talks which reached a last-minute non-binding deal, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will make a statement in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday where he is expected to say that India's sovereignty has been well protected.

Fresh from the world climate change talks which reached a last-minute non-binding deal, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will make a statement in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday where he is expected to say that India's sovereignty has been well protected.

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Ramesh on his return home after attending the nearly two-week long 193-nation conference in Copenhagen met Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday and briefed her on the provisional deal cobbled together by a small group of countries, including the US, India and China for fighting global warming.

"I will make a statement in Rajya Sabha tomorrow at 12 noon tomorrow ," Ramesh told PTI here this evening when his comments were sought on Government's strategy in Parliament post-Copenhagen Accord. He declined to give any details.

Ramesh, who was part of the Indian negotiating team, earlier said on the outcome of the crucial negotiations in the Danish Capital that the accord was "a good deal."

Indian officials have also noted that the US-brokered deal had addressed India's concerns adequately, although some improvements could be made.

"The red lines have been met," Prime Minister's Climate Change envoy Shyam Saran said, noting that India did not have to compromise on any of its fundamental stands on the issue.

Ramesh is likely to tell Rajya Sabha that India's sovereignty was well protected in Copenhagen and that some of the red lines he had expressed in his speech in Parliament ahead of Copenhagen talks have not been transgressed.

The Minister is understood to have taken the view that the Copenhagen accord is the first good step holding that it was good for India, the world and good for Earth.