COPENHAGEN, Dec 13 – India today made it clear that it was opposed to any amendment of the Kyoto Protocol that prescribes mandatory emission cuts on developed countries as the 12-day climate talks headed into the second week where environment ministers would seek to give a political push to the negotiations which were in disarray. Informal talks among the environment ministers on the draft deal, criticised by rich nations and emerging economies, continued over the weekend with the hope that they could agree on a text that could be put before the heads of state and government assembling for the plenary here later next week.
“There are articles bracketing the Annex 1 and non-Annex countries and allows Annex 1 (developed nations) to abandon Kyoto, which is not the right message to give at this point of time,” India’s Environment Secretary Vijay Sharma said.
The highlight of the past week was an attempt by tiny Pacific Island nation Tuvalu to stall the negotiations by staging a walkout as the chair of the conference refused to take up its proposal for limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrial years.
However, Danish Minister Connie Hedegaard, chairing the talks, insisted that procedural advances in the first six days had been “fantastic.”
“The core discussions... Have really started,” she said adding the the delegates “still have a daunting task in front of us over the next few days.”
Sticking to its one protocol approach, developing countries like India, China and Brazil are opposing attempts led by Tuvalu and Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to add another protocol to the Kyoto Protocol at the December 7-18 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, held under tight security.
“Our focus is on heightened implementation of the convention,” Sharma said, noting that “the spotlight is on existing commitments.”
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who is here to participate in the ministerial meet, has said India will play a constructive role in the climate negotiations but slammed efforts of rich nations to make domestic emission reduction claims by developing nations legally-binding and verifiable.
Ramesh asserted that India’s national voluntary domestic measures to tackle global warming were not up for global scrutiny, and progress on these would be checked only by the country’s Parliament.
India and other developing nations suspect that Europe’s support for a new protocol is also an attempt to weaken the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for 37 developed countries for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
Copenhagen was swamped by thousands of protestors who demanded strong action from the delegates at the conference.
Several of them were detained as the protests turned violent but were set free except for 13 who were still in custody.
