Climate meet:India wants 'legally binding substantive' outcome

Ajay Kaul
Washington, Nov 23 (PTI) India does not endorse efforts
to dilute expectations from the Copenhagen climate summit and
is pushing for a "legally binding substantive" outcome, a
matter that will be discussed during Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh talks with US President Barack Obama.
Coinciding with the Copenhagen meet, India is considering
a legislation incorporating all its action plans and national
missions aimed at reducing dependence on coal based fuels and
"improving" the environment by 20 per cent by 2020.
During their meeting Tuesday, Singh and Obama will
discuss what kind of outcome is expected from Copenhagen meet
beginning on December 7, sources said.
India and a number of developing countries want "legally
binding substantive outcome" from the meet and do not endorse
the recent statement by the US and other Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation nations that a mere political declaration would
do.
The sources said that India does not want the world to
give up with regard to Copenhagen meet, as is being done by
some countries.
India feels that there is still time for Copenhagen
conference, particularly its high-level segment beginning on
December 16, and efforts should be made to push the
negotiations for an outcome mandated by United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change and Bali action plan.

There should be no attempt to pre-empt the Copenhagen
meet as 192 countries are involved in it and the consensus
would be required even if it is not possible to achieve a
legally binding declaration at Copenhagen, some consensus
should be arrived at the end, the sources said.
The effort should be to see "how far we can go", they
said.
"We should try to get the maximum from Copenhagen and the
template should continue to be UNFCCC and Bali action Plan," a
source said.
On its part, India does not wish to see any outcome that
will diminish the prospect of its development.
If the Copenhagen meet fails to arrive at legally binding
outcome it should pave the way for such results in the next
six months or so.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) provides for countries furnishing their domestic
commitments about what they have done in the past and what
they intend to do in the future.
India is willing to adhere to this even if the national
commitments have to be submitted periodically.
The sources pointed out India already has a domestic
action plan which is voluntary and aimed at specific target.
These include solar mission and green India vision which are
aimed at "improving" environment by 20 per cent by 2020.
The government plans to encapsulate the various climate
action plan in the form of a legislation, the sources said.

They said India and the US bilaterally have conversion of
views on climate issue even though they may differ at
multilateral negotiations.
Both countries agree that there is an inter-link between
climate change and energy security and the necessity of use of
technology to fight this problem.
The sources emphasised that there was critical consensus
in India over how to approach Copenhagen meet notwithstanding
a recent statement by Indian Environment Minister Jairam
Ramesh which created confusion before he issued a
clarification. PTI AKK
ANU