Against the backdrop of deepening rifts between developed and developing countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to Copenhagen on Thursday to renew India's pitch for 'a balanced, equitable and ambitious outcome' at the UN climate summit.
Manmohan Singh will be among a handful of visiting leaders who will speak at the plenary , which will also be addressed by Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, official sources said.
The Danish prime minister will host a lunch for visiting heads of state and government Friday afternoon. There may be another plenary session if no consensus is reached at the end of the first plenary, the sources said.
Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will be accompanying the prime minister to Cophenhagen. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will join them in the Danish capital.
Although no bilateral meetings have been firmed up yet, Manmohan Singh is likely to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and discuss the articulation of a common stand on key issues of mitigation, technology and financing. He may have a pull-aside meeting with US President Barack Obama, the sources said.
India has already announced that it would consider an emission intensity cut of 20 to 25 percent by 2020, but has made it clear that it would not be forced into accepting binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Indian negotiators have already laid down red lines over what they consider non-negotiable issues like the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities of developed and developing countries for curbing carbon emissions and the transfer of technologies and finance to enable developing countries to combat climate change.
In his speech, Manmohan Singh is expected to underline unilateral and voluntary mitigation actions taken by India to curb greenhouse gas emissions and key features of India's national action plan on combating climate change.
India will fiercely oppose the ongoing efforts by some developed countries to kill the 1997 Kyoto protocol which is premised on the differential responsibilities of developed and developing countries and will not accept any outcome that budges from this core principle, the sources said.
The industrialised countries reportedly want to junk the Kyoto protocol and bring the domestic actions of developing countries under international scrutiny.
The G77 countries, including India, have rejected these demands and want the rich countries to accept deeper binding carbon emission cuts and declare precise figures for finance and technological support to ease the transition in developing countries.
