Environment ministry wants tough stance at Durban talks

The union cabinet is expected to decide on India's stance at the UN climate conference in Durban with environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan suggesting to adopt a hardline approach and shun flexi-approach of her predecessor Jairam Ramesh.

Updated on: Nov 30, 2011, 23:48:56 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The union cabinet is expected to decide on India's stance at the UN climate conference in Durban with environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan suggesting to adopt a hardline approach and shun flexi-approach of her predecessor Jairam Ramesh.

In a cabinet note circulated, the environment ministry has sought reiteration of India's stance in 2010 that says no to a legally-binding climate treaty, demands a second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol, ensures climate transparency regime is not intrusive and seeks finalisation of the US $ 100-bn green climate fund.

The ministry has also listed equity, technology transfer and unfair carbon tax, which were left out of the Cancun agreements, in the cabinet note. The note says India will take up these issues aggressively in Durban. Already China and 50 out of the 131 countries in G-77 have supported India for bringing the left out issues at Cancun back on the table.

Government sources said India may adopt a flexible approach on the structure of the green climate fund and technology mechanism, which is expected to be finalised

in Durban. India's tough stance in Durban may witness opposition from Jairam Ramesh and planning commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who believe that India has to align its position with the changing global economic scenario to prevent its isolation.

Their views on Thursday's cabinet meeting will be important as China, the world's biggest carbon emitter, has left its options open whereas India is believed to have closed its doors. “India and China are not comparable. Chinese emissions have grown at a much faster rate than India's,” said Sunita Narian, director-general of NGO Centre for Science and Environment.

India believes that it has the support of developing countries like Venezuela, Pakistan, Cuba and Brazil as there is a view that rich nations are trying to hijack the climate talks.

However, South Africa appears to be distancing itself from India and China in a bid to get a conclusive outcome in Durban.

The cabinet decision will also help the negotiators to take on the rich nations as they believe that the government will back them. Unlike in the last couple of years, negotiation will be led by officials, not a minister.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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