By IANS,
New Delhi : India stands by the Copenhagen Accord which will not open up the country’s emission reduction efforts to international scrutiny or affect the country’s national interests, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.
“We hold consultations with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) every year. There are consultations on the WTO (World Trade Organisation). No sovereignty is affected. What is wrong with international consultations (on India’s efforts to reduce emissions)?” Ramesh asked, while replying to a debate on the Copenhagen climate change summit in parliament’s upper house.
“We should not fear the word consultations. I see no great sellout,” the minister said in a pointed rejoinder to Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley (Bharatiya Janata Party), who alleged that by agreeing to such consultations, Ramesh had gone back on a commitment he made to parliament that India would only file a report every two years on the steps it was taking to reduce emissions.
In a statement in the house earlier, Ramesh said: “There is a provision (in the accord) for international consultations and analysis for implementation of the actions taken (on emission reductions) through national communications. The guidelines for such consultation and analysis will be devised and defined in due course. We have been able to incorporate a specific provision that these ‘clearly defined guidelines will ensure that the national sovereignty will be respected’.”
Ramesh also said India had not only protected but enhanced its interests at the Copenhagen summit, and the close coordination between India, China, Brazil and South Africa – the so-called BASIC countries – was another big plus to emerge out of the conference.
Explaining the circumstances under which the word “consultations” came to be incorporated in the Copenhagen Accord, Ramesh, in his reply, said: “When it came to the crunch, the negotiators wanted to use the words ‘review’, ‘scrutiny’ and ‘verification’. We resisted for 36 hours. The BASIC countries said under no circumstances will we accept these words.
“Then they said dialogue. Again, we said no. Then we agreed to the common phraseology of international consultations. The word is not new,” Ramesh maintained..
“I agree I moved from the word information to consultations and analysis. Yes, there is a shift in words. It was a decision taken collectively by the BASIC countries. We decided we will not be held responsible for the failure of the conference.
“Consultations and analysis means precisely that. Sovereignty is not eroded,” Ramesh said, adding: “I want to reassure the house that the guidelines that will be framed will respect national sovereignty.”
“We will ensure that these are not intrusive consultations and not intrusive analysis,” he maintained.
Ramesh also denied that India had accepted a peaking year for emission reductions.
“I had said (in parliament) that we would not accept peaking. On Dec 16 (at Copenhagen), the year 2025 emerged. The accord does not mention a date. Our concept of peaking India’s per capita emissions will never exceed that of the developed world. That’s an implicit peaking.
“The government of India has not accepted any peaking for the developing countries, but you must agree that we must peak in the 21st century. If we don’t, there might not be a 22nd century,” Ramesh contended.
He also countered Jaitley’s allegation that India was not on the radar of the $100 billion a year fund that would be mobilised by 2020 to assist developing countries bring down their emission levels.
“We don’t want international aid. We can stand on out feet. Ten years from now, we could be selling green technology. Many Indian companies have seen business opportunities in this area. This an opportunity for India to be moving ahead,” Ramesh contended.
Earlier, the BJP tore into the Copenhagen Accord, saying it would affect the country’s national interests.
“We have a lot of concerns. We should not be seen as the fall guy but still, we should not let our interests fall,” Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley contended after Ramesh had read out his statement on the Copenhagen talks.
The government has been “outwitted” in the drafting of the document, Jaitley said while labelling it a “US-BASIC” accord, rather than an accord among all the 192 nations that attended the Copenhagen summit.
“It (the accord) appears to be a complete betrayal of the poor nations,” he added.
He also asked the government to clarify “what will be the consequences under the guidelines (of the accord)”.