New Delhi: Amid criticism that Copenhagen
accord is against India's interest, Environment Minister
Jairam Ramesh today said the country should not be
"evangelical" while holding negotiations at the global forum.
Pointing out that the accord had "settled many
contentious points" between developed and developing countries
on how to fight climate change without giving up on
development, Ramesh said "we scored 2.5 out of three on the
negotiation table".
Soon after the Copenhagen accord was prepared last month
at the UN meet on climate change, various NGOs have been
accusing India of bowing to the US and it was not in the
interest of the country.
"The Copenhagen Accord is weak, meaningless and
fundamentally flawed. It will be bad for the fight against
climate change and bad for India," Centre for Science and
Environment (CSE) Director Sunita Narain said today.
"It (the accord) allows developed countries to increase
emissions -- by negating the position that Annex I (developed
nations) emissions should have peaked by the year 2000.
"It does not set drastic emission reduction targets for
these countries. If this accord is accepted, the world will
not be able to meet the 2?C target but will be on a disastrous
course of at least 3?C and more," she added.
Ramesh, while admitting that the negotiations did not
meet any body's expectations, said "still the developing
nations managed to ensure that the talks would continue at the
multilateral level and that a legal binding treaty is
formulated at Mexico when the UN parties meet next".
Asked to comment on the failure's of Copenhagen meet,
Ramesh who was closely involved in the last-minute talks at
the Danish capital, said issues like whether the accord would
be legally binding or what should be goal of curbing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, remain unanswered".
He also felt that the accord was floundering on financial
aspects, with most of the fund being proposed to be generated
through the market instead of a public fund as proposed in the
1997 Kyoto Protocol.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, January 08, 2010, 23:01