NEW DELHI: A high-profile panel of the United Nation Secretary General (UNSG) on Global Sustainability has recommended that the world adopt sustainable development targets. The move has been opposed by India and several other developing countries as creating a backdoor for caps on emissions and green targets, while breaching the firewall between developing and rich countries that is enshrined in the Rio declaration and the UN convention on climate change.

The report, released on Monday, is seen as a key input to the world leaders' summit Rio+20 to be held in Brazil later this year, which will review global efforts in achieving 'sustainable development'.

A proposal in the run-up to the Rio+20 meeting suggesting that all countries adopt green targets to achieve over a fixed time along the lines of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) had been opposed by India. The UNSG panel has supported a similar proposal.

The report recommends, "We believe that agreeing on a set of key universal sustainable development goals could help to galvanize such action, drawing on the experience of the Millennium Development Goals and building on their successful aspects. These should be defined in a way that complements the Millennium Development Goals while allowing for a post-2015 successor framework."

While the earlier proposal had been more direct in demanding standardized targets for all countries on securing a percentage of renewable energy in the power mix of countries and caps on emission and reduction of subsidies to fossil fuels, the report does provide caveats at other points.

But the reference to specific goals, which are universal in nature, goes against the Indian position that the Rio declaration countries signed 20 years ago enshrines the principles of 'common and differentiated responsibilities' and such targets would override these. India is wary that they impinge upon economic development and make way for rich countries to force costly technology in the name of green economy.

Similar attempts have been continuously made at the UN climate negotiations and been opposed since consensus holds the key in taking decisions.

The panel also recommends that a post-2015 global framework for sustainable development should "incorporate near-term benchmarks while being long-term in scope, looking ahead to a deadline of perhaps 2030". The similarity of looking for a post-2015 global environmental regime with a weakened firewall between rich and poor countries - akin to the European Union's push in the Durban climate talks last year - has also not gone unnoticed in the policy circles in India.

A move to let the UNSG's office and its team to oversee further action on the report is bound to cause concern of decision-making shifting to a less-democratic UN institution and outside the purview of the UN climate talks or the UN General Assembly, where each country holds a single vote.