Following China's announcement that it is willing to take conditional legally binding commitments after 2020, Durban is abuzz with talks of which direction would India take on the contentious issue that has stalled any progress in climate combating measures.

As the high-level segment of the climate change talks kick off, Environment Minister Mrs. Jayanthi Natarajan stressed that she is looking for more reassurances from the developed world. Mrs. Natarajan also maintained there was no change in the position of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group which forms the alliance of emerging economies.

“I have come to Durban with an open mind,” she said in response to the demand for a new legally-binding treaty being raised here by the European Union, Japan and other parties.

“But I would like to know whether it would be binding only for mitigation and whether it will be same for Annex-1 (developed) and non-Annex 1 countries (developing),” she said.

After joining the talks this week, Mrs. Natarajan met top negotiators from the US, European Union and the BASIC alliance. “We are very optimistic that we will understand each others' positions,” she said.

Developments over the past week, however, indicate deep divisions between developed and developing nations that are yet to be bridged. After losing out in last year's talks in Cancun, the Indian delegation insisted that negotiators here revisit its three-point agenda, which was submitted in the first week of the climate talks. The agenda includes ~ equitable sharing of atmospheric carbon space, technology sharing and intellectual property rights (IPR) and unilateral trade barriers.

“Commitment for finance and technology, whether it will be present or not, how will equity figure in such an agreement, how will IPR be handled?” Mrs. Natarajan asked.

Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, 37 developed countries have been placed under international legal obligations to reduce carbon emissions during a first commitment period, which expires next year. Some countries like Japan and Canada are withdrawing from the treaty citing it ineffective because it leaves out the bulk of carbon emission produced by China, India and the United States, which has not ratified it.

The EU is willing to sign up for a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol if emerging economies also agree to take binding carbon emissions cuts in the future. EU is also proposing a new track of negotiations that will place all countries under one legally-binding treaty, which the bloc wants to negotiate by 2015 so that it can come into force by 2020.

This is viewed by developing countries as an abandonment of the current negotiation tracks that have been agreed to by the governments in the past decade. But now China has said it will consider signing up to such an instrument if developed world does its part in bringing down greenhouse gas emissions in this decade, and these efforts should be effective in controlling the problem.

“Could we reassure each other against unilateral actions in such a treaty? How will the ratification process of Kyoto Protocol be resolved and most importantly we at this time of our development we need to keep the imperatives of developing country in mind and the need to grow,” Mrs. Natarajan said.

Responding to accusations that India was being a spoiler, she said: “I don't perceive this as a correct perspective.”She, however, said: “Our development imperative is important.”