New Delhi: India on Sunday said it will build on
the decisions taken at the Copenhagen conference and will take
forward the negotiations during the meeting of Conference of
Parties in Mexico later this year.
"We have to carry forward the decisions taken at the
Copenhagen Conference on both the Bali Action plan as well as
the Kyoto protocol," Prime Minister`s Special Envoy, Shyam
Saran today said, while addressing the valedictory session of
the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2010, here.
The main focus would be to work on the two key decisions
prior to the 16th Conference of Parties (COP) meeting, which
is scheduled to be held in Mexico in December, he said.
Saran said the Copenhagen summit took a decision to set
up "ad-hoc working groups" to carry forward the Bali action
plan, while the second decision was "to continue with the
negotiations under the current Kyoto protocol plan with the
same mandate as before."
"I think we need to make certain that these two working
groups are set up as quickly as possible and have a program of
very intensified work in the coming months," he noted.
Drawing lessons from the Copenhagen conference, he said
the conference did not succeed as much it should have been,
precisely because the "link between the green room, where
25-30 heads of the governments were sitting for negotiations,
and the main plenary hall did not exist."
"This was visible at the Copenhagen and this must be
avoided at all cost in future," he noted.
Saran also pointed out that the "timing of the conference
was wrong as it was in the middle of the global economic
crisis."
He further said though controversy still surrounds the
Copenhagen accord there was a positive outcome as countries
reached at a broad consensus on a number of outstanding
issues.
"This was the valuable asset we take forward --the
negotiations during the post-Copenhagen process," he said,
adding the awareness about climate change has increased both
among politicians and citizens across the globe.
Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi said "India is
already taking measures to improve energy efficiency in
sectors like power, transport and manufacturing. It has set-up
the Solar Energy Mission and hopes to take more steps to
address the climate change issue."
PTI
