NEW DELHI: In one of his most emphatic public statements reaffirming the return of 'equity' in India's climate change stance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said global cooperation on climate change "must be based on the foundation of the right to development and the need for an equitable distribution of burden".
Coming days before India makes its submission outlining the frame for a post-2020 climate regime, PM's statement was a closely watched event at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organized by TERI.
"The need for equity is starkly reflected in the fact that the emissions per capita in industrialized countries are 10 to 12 times those of developing countries. We know that total emissions in the world must decline, but what does this imply for emissions in individual countries? We must find a way of solving this problem in a way that does not deprive developing countries of their right to develop," Singh said.
This was also the first public statement by the head of the government after the Durban meet in November last year, which saw India bring 'equity' back to the table as one its key non-negotiable principle. In the two years before that India had let the principle of equitable burden sharing be diluted and taken off the agenda. At Durban, it achieved a partial comeback for the issue.
Developed countries have been keenly watching for signals from India about how it would approach the framing of discussions for what is called the Durban Platform - a new track of negotiations under the UN convention meant to set the rules for the post 2020 regime.
Leaving little room for doubt that Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan's stance had his full backing, the PM said on Thursday, "In the ensuing negotiations, we will need to focus on the substantive nature of arrangements, based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, more than their legal shape."
For the first time publicly linking the Rio+20 dialogue with issues of equity as well, the PM laid down the line for upcoming negotiations that are to culminate with a heads of states meeting in Brazil. He said, "I urge all those gathered here today to reflect whether they have been given the importance they deserved in establishing a new and equitable global partnership that was the aim of the Rio Declaration."
On the side of the DSDS meeting, the EU commissioner for climate change Connie Haadegard met the Indian environment minister. The meeting, sources said, involved some plain speak from the Indian end including its views on how the EU carbon tax on aviation could destabilize talks on a future climate regime under the Durban platform.
