India not in the line of fire: Ramesh

Betwa Sharma

Copenhagen, Dec 14 (PTI) Admitting that India and
other emerging economies' stand was considerably different
from the 43 countries in the AOSIS, India's Environment
Minister Jairam Ramesh said that India had no major
differences with the United States.
He noted that India was not having a major standoff
with the United States but the real differences existed
between the China and the developed world as well as the
between European Union and the United States.
"India is not in the firing line," Ramesh told
journalists here Sunday.
However, in the past few days US chief negotiator
Todd Stern has told journalists here that that it would not
suffice for developing countries to just post their domestic
action taken to combat climate change for information and that
powerful economies would need to demonstrate a greater
commitment.
"There is no way to solve this problem by giving the
major developing economies a pass," he said.
Stern noted that developing countries including
Brazil, India, South Korea and China had made "significant"
proposals but these would have to be "wrapped up" in an
international agreement and not captured in "press
release domestically".
Despite these glaring divergences, Ramesh told
journalists that India and the US were not having problems
here but the Americans had deeper contentions with China since
it was the largest producer of greenhouse gases.

Instead, Ramesh stated that India as well as other
emerging developing nations had divergent views with the Small
Island States but India was pushing hard to play a
"facilitative" role and bring all parts of the G77 together
including the African group and Alliance of Small Island
States (AOSIS).
The admitted that India and other emerging economies'
stand was different from the 43 countries in the AOSIS.
"We have to deal with them because they have a
different point of view. I have been at pains to stress we do
not want confrontation we want compromise and consensus," he
said.
Ramesh noted that India and China were in "very close
coordination" with several meetings between himself and
Chinese Minister Xie Zhenhua in the past two days.
"We meet very frequently. We are coordinating our
position. India's constructive role has come in for
considerable mention and place. We're not being confrontation.
We are trying to get all parties together," Ramesh said
indicating he met his counterparts from Brazil and South
Africa.
Ramesh said based on his discussions so far it
appeared that if Copenhagen failed to deliver "what NGOs
are calling FAB (Fair, Ambitious and Binding)" it would not be
because of "India or the developing countries but because of
differences between the developed world".
"There are differences between the EU and America," he
said, noting that the European and Japanese don’t want to take
on legal commitments unless the Americans also commit more but
the US has made it clear that they will not join into any
instrument that evenly remotely resembles the Kyoto Protocol.
"The basics issue is credibility of the commitments
that the developed world has not been able to fulfill and they
cannot hold India and China as excuses for non fulfillment,"
he added, pointing out that the developed countries had not
kept their commitments to peak by 2020. PTI BS