Kerry-Javadekar meeting: Positive and constructive but no compromise

After describing India as a “major challenge” for climate talks, US Secretary for State John Kerry appreciated the work being done by the Indian delegation in Paris after an hour long meeting with environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday night.

Updated on: Dec 9, 2015, 08:04:57 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Paris

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After describing India as a “major challenge” for climate talks, US Secretary for State John Kerry appreciated the work being done by the Indian delegation in Paris after an hour long meeting with environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday night.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar met with John Kerry at the Paris conference, with both sides discussing issues. (PTI Photo)

“The meeting was positive and constructive and we are working hard,” Kerry said, after his first bilateral meeting. Kerry had a dinner meeting with conference president Laurent Fabius later.

Javadekar also expressed similar appreciation saying both sides exchanged views on a large number of issues hovering climate talks. “We heard each other and decided to talk further,” the Indian minister said.

He said that Kerry has come to discuss how they can arrive at “just” and “ambitious” agreement in Paris and added that this was part of several bilateral meetings he had with environment ministers on Tuesday.

Kerry and Javadekar had earlier entered into a verbal duel over India’s stand for climate talks. Kerry had identified India as a challenge whereas Javadekar had termed his statement as “unfortunate”.

The Tuesday night meeting was Kerry’s first bilateral and was seen as an attempt of US to diffuse tension between the two sides. Sources said the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama had not gone down well on climate issues as the US was seeking a joint statement to which India did not agree.

The United States wants developing countries to agree to a universal review and verification mechanism for all countries on climate action plans whereas India has agreed only for stock-taking of the plans submitted by every country called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

While India wants that all elements of Paris agreement to be binding, the US is seeking binding element only for review and verification. US climate negotiator Todd Stern had clearly said no for binding obligation on mitigation targets. US had pledged to reduce its emissions by 26-28 % by 2030 of 2005 level.

Javadekar said there was “no compromise” on any of the climate issues and added that more such meetings can take place in the next 72 hours. Apart from senior environment ministry officials, External Affairs Ministry’s senior official Sujata Mehta was also present at the meeting.

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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