Climate meet: Mixed bag for India

Sleep-deprived diplomats from 194 countries survived two long nights of intense negotiations on Sunday to approve a roadmap towards an agreement that will for the first time bring all major greenhouse gas emitters, including India and China, under a single legal roof by 2015. Chetan Chauhan reports. Isolated India and China reluctantly agreed

Sleep-deprived diplomats from 194 countries survived two long nights of intense negotiations on Sunday to approve a roadmap towards an agreement that will for the first time bring all major greenhouse gas emitters, including India and China, under a single legal roof by 2015.

The new eight-point agreement titled Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, likely to be operational from 2020, will become the prime weapon in the fight against climate change.

Under the new deal, there will be differentiated emission cuts for rich and developing countries based on principles of equity. “It is a just a beginning,” said Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment. The treaty can at best be termed as a mixed bag for India. Though Delhi managed to push in the principle of equity, its other two demands of unilateral trade barriers and transfer of patents for clean energy technologies are out.

“We were not happy with reopening the text, but we have shown our flexibility and agreed to adopt it,” environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan said.