By IANS,
New Delhi : A month after Shyam Saran, India’s key negotiator on climate change demitted office, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Tuesday said he will be leading the country’s climate change talks at international fora.
“I will be India’s chief negotiator for talks related to climate change,” Ramesh told reporters here.
Saran, who was the prime minister’s special envoy on climate change, left office March 14 over his differences with Ramesh on India’s stand in Copenhagen last year, which he felt was “weak” and “didn’t get much action”.
Ramesh said that a five member inter-ministerial climate change negotiating team is already in place to take forward the country’s negotiations.
Environment Ministry Secretary Vijai Sharma, Additional Secretary J.M. Mauscar, Joint Secretary R.R. Rashmi and two others are part of the team.
None of the two former negotiators – former Indian diplomat Chandrashekhar Dasgupta and former environment secretary Prodipto Ghosh – are in the team.
Dasgupta was also unhappy with the way Ramesh handled the climate change talks at Copenhagen and had signalled that he won’t be part of the new negotiating team.
Explaining the reason for dropping them, Ramesh said: “Everywhere in the world inter-ministerial team participates in negotiations and not retired personnel. They can be part of the advisory group.”