‘Will talk legally binding treaty not emission cuts’

India has entered the debate on legally binding climate treaty that has hogged the Durban climate conference with a set of questions and a firm no to accepting any emission cuts.

Updated on: Dec 6, 2011, 23:21:24 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Durban

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India has entered the debate on legally binding climate treaty that has hogged the Durban climate conference with a set of questions and a firm no to accepting any emission cuts.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan was willing to discuss the issue provided rich nations accept India's concerns on equity, commitment for finance and technology, intellectual property rights issues and unilateral carbon tax imposed on aviation sector.

She also wanted to know the nature of legally binding climate treaty vis-a-vis rich and developing countries and whether mitigation targets would be similar for all.

"I have come to Durban with an open mind," Natarajan said and added that projection of legally binding agreement as panacea for climate change was "completely off the mark"

Natarajan said seeking legally binding agreement confuses implementation with ambition and was a bid of rich nations to foresake their international obligations under the UN climate convention.

Her statement earned immediate backing from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and NGO Centre for Science and Environment. "India should not accept any emission cuts till its average carbon footprint is at the level of the rich nations," said Arun Bharat Ram, former chief of CII. Agreeing withRam, Sunita Narain, director-general CSE, added, emission cuts can impede India's efforts to eradicate poverty and develop to the level of rich nations.

China, which announced conditional emission cuts after 2020 on Monday, agreed with India. "On legally binding agreement, I endorse her (Natarajan's) statement," said China vice chairperson of National Development Commission Xie Zhengua.

But two other partners in the Basic group -- South Africa and Brazil, however differed. "We agree to rule based legally binding agreement," said Brazilian climate negotiator Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago.

Natarajan by taking the stand had re-affirmed what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told US president Barack Obama recently. "We cannot take any legally binding emissioncuts at this stage of our development," Singh had said.

To counter pressure on India from rich and least developed nations to accept legally binding treaty, Natarajan said, the poor cannot be expected to be legally bound to reduce emissions when they have nothing to emit. "Development is the best healer for environment," she said.

Throwing the ball in the court of rich nations on behalf of the developing world, Natarajan wanted to know how the ratification process of Kyoto Protocol would be resolved, if there is agreement on a legally binding treaty. The debate over extending Kyoto Protocol for second commitment period beyond 2012 is stuck, a concern for India.

She also wanted to know whether the legally binding nature will mean commitment of rich nations on finance and technology. "What will happen to equity?" she asked.

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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