Prospects of breakthrough in Cancun very remote: Ramesh

K J M Varma
Beijing, May 9 (PTI) Enviornment Minister of India
Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said the prospect of a breakthrough to
combat climate change at the Cancun meet this year is "very
remote" due to unwillingness of top emitters like the US and
China to make any firm commitments on greenhouse gas
reductions.
"The prospect of a breakthrough in 2010 is very,
very remote...We have reached virtually a dead end" as number
one and two top emitters -- US and China -- are unwilling to
make any firm commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, Ramesh
told an interactive session at the Foreign Correspondents
Club.
The next major UN climate conference is in Cancun,
Mexico, in December. BASIC countries -- Brazil, South Africa,
China and India -- had hammered out 'Copenhagen Accord' at the
Climate Change conference in December 2009.
"Whether it is one agreement or a series of
sub-agreements remains to be seen. But I am not very
optimistic of one overarching legally binding agreement," he
said.
Ramesh said there are chances that leading countries
could work out "building block" agreements on subjects like
forest and technology.
"What I am more hopeful of is series of building
block agreement like forestry, like technology, like finance.
Whether it adds up to an overall overarching legally binding
agreement I am not sure," he said.
He said India is opposed to any carbon tax "imposed by
any developed country" on imports from India and China.
"We think this is against the WTO. These carbon taxes
are not WTO compatible. They would in fact not only wreck
climate change but [also wreck] international trade. We are
completely opposed to the idea of an international carbon tax,
or a carbon tax at the border," he said.
Carbon tax as an instrument to regulate international
trade is a very bad idea, he said.
China's top climate change negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, twice
shouted and thumped the table when the agreement was signed at
Copenhagen, Ramesh recalled.
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were all in the room
during the negotiations.
"'What did he say?'" Ramesh quoted Clinton as saying.
"'He's congratulating us,'" Obama said, according to
Ramesh.
Ramesh said he never found out what Xie was shouting
about. "I think he was saying the Americans were not
fulfilling their part of the bargain. That's my guess," the
Environment Minister said. PTI KJV
AHM


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