By IANS,
New Delhi : Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan Wednesday said India’s concerns on equity had been recognised at the Durban climate conference and the next few years will be a period of intensive negotiations on the future arrangements.
Natarajan told the Rajya Sabha that India participated in the conference with “an open and constructive mind”.
“It is of paramount importance that the issue of equity is brought to the centre-stage of negotiations in future. With this objective in mind, India had proposed at Durban that the issues of equity, unilateral trade measures and technology related intellectual property rights (IPRs) should be included in the agenda of the conference of parties,” Natarajan said.
“I am happy to inform that the importance of the issue of equity has been recognized and the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long term Cooperative Action (AWG LCA) has decided to organize a workshop on the matter next year,” she said in a statement which was tabled in the upper house.
Natarjan said the importance of unilateral trade measures and technology-related IPRs had also been noted at the conference and the issues were now part of the discussion text.
She said India’s position at the conference had been guided by “national consensus” on the issue of climate change.
“We will continue to pursue a vision of the future that is rooted in the convention and its principles,” she said.
The Durban climate change conference was held between Nov 28 and Dec 11.