Climate Accord Is Partial Success, Has ‘Inbuilt Hazards’: Ramesh
Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has described the Copenhagen accord on climate change as a partial success for India, saying that it has certain ‘inbuilt hazards’ of which developing countries should be wary.
“The accord has certain inbuilt hazards and the developing world, especially India, has to be wary on those accounts.
“The foremost risk is that the developed world could demand an end to the Kyoto Protocol (based on the principle of equity),” Ramesh, who was here yesterday to review the progress of the Ganga river cleanliness programme, told reporters.
Nevertheless, the minister dismissed the Opposition’s claim that the climate summit was a failure.
“It is a partial victory for BASIC Group comprising Brazil, China, India and South Africa when it wrested three important benefits from US President Barack Obama at Copenhagen,” he said.
Referring country’s stand of not accepting any binding cuts on emissions, Ramesh said that the US gave in to our proposal on global goals and the legally non-binding nature of the accord.
About monitoring and verification and, especially, about the US proposal of analysis/assessment, he said, “We agreed for consultations and analysis which would respect national sovereignty.”
He said that India bargained at the summit from the point of strength and ‘we did not enter into any binding agreement’.
