India opposes protectionism under green label

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 25 (PTI) India has cautioned the
developed world, the US and European countries in particular,
to avoid any attempt to sneak in "protectionism under green
label" as this would hurt their global efforts to successfully
meet the challenges posed by climate change.

"We should not open doors for protectionism under green
label. That is something, which would be a very negative
development," said Shyam Saran, Indian Prime Minister's
Special Envoy on Climate Change. He was responding to
questions from the audience at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, a Washington-based think tank.

Saran is in the US to have a series of high-level meeting
with top officials of Obama Administration on issues related
to climate change and clean energy, which has been a major
focus areas for the new US government.

"Bringing in trade competitive or industrial competitive
issues would only complicate the effort that we are trying to
make to comeup with a global regime, which is as I mentioned
(needs to be) fair and equitable," Saran said cautioning the
developed world from indulging in such a endeavour.

"Most developing countries will argue that we are already
starting with a very unleveled playing field. In virtually all
international discourse, it has been recognised that
development must be kept at the center of whatever global
effort we have. And climate change is no exception to that,"
Saran said.

"If you look at the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCC), which remains the only consensus legal
instrument to deal with the issue of climate change, action on
climate change by all countries of the world is not
conditional upon any trade or investment related matters,"
Saran said in reply to a question on this issue.

"So this has been very deliberately kept out of the
action that is required with respect to climate change. What
the UNFCC had envisaged and what we developing countries feel
is that what you need is a global collaborative effort to
address the issue of climate change and not something which
gets linked up with issue of level playing field," Saran said.

The Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change said
the Obama Administration is "very, very serious" about climate
change, however its position in negotiations is still a work
in progress.

In his speech "India's Climate Change Initiatives:
Strategies for a Greener Future" Saran said the attempt to
club India together with so-called major emitters is
misleading and unfair. "We do not believe that we are major
emitters," he said in reply to a question.

"The latest data shows that while US and China are each
responsible for about 20 per cent of global CO2 emissions,
India, with its billion plus population, generates only four
per cent of such emissions. Furthermore, as against a per
capita CO2 emission of 20 tonnes for the US, India's is a low
1.8 tonnes per capita," he argued. PTI