By IANS,
New Delhi: Sending a strong message to the developed countries, Indian Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan Thursday said rich countries should not get involved in competitive politics if the world wants to achieve its goal at the Durban climate change conference later this month.
Her statement comes after US President Barack Obama said that the US is doing a lot but emerging economies have got to take seriously their responsibilities as well.
Natrajan said that the prospects of Durban conference achieving its goal will be much less possible if it gets caught up in competitive politics like what developing countries are doing though actually being major emitters.
“Climate change has climbed to the political agenda of the nations besides acquiring deep competitive and economic policy overturns. Increasingly our partners in the developed world who are mandated to take the legal mitigation action are measuring their actions in competitive terms that is their action vis-a-vis action of developing countries. Durban should not get caught in competitive politics,” she said at a gathering here.
Presenting India’s likely stand at Durban climate change talks to be held from Nov 28-Dec 9, she said they should discuss charting out strategy to address the issue of climate change based on agenda as outlined in the Bali Action Plan and adhere to second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol.
Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding agreement that calls for emission cuts by developed countries. US has not ratified it yet.
Natarajan categorically said that a long-term, legally binding agreement cannot be a quid pro quo for extending the Kyoto pact.
“Developments in past five years in climate change negotiations have strengthened this feeling that we are straying from our assigned path. Climate change is seen not as a project for global collaboration but one that only needs competitive adjustments of one partner country does vis-à-vis the other partner country,” she said.
“There are continuous change of negotiations that seek parallelism between action of developed and developing countries and this is what we need to focus upon,” she said.
She said India won’t agree to a new legally binding agreement as there is already a existing regime in the form of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.