India seeks legally binding commitments for developed nations

Betwa Sharma
Copenhagen, Dec 15 (PTI) With hopes for a far-reaching
deal on climate change receding, India is making a strong
pitch for extending the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 and
commitments that legally bind developed countries to reduce
emissions.
The crucial talks at the climate change summit were
suspended briefly Monday following a walkout by the BASIC
bloc, including India and China, protesting that the rich
countries were making attempts to shirk responsibility in
tackling global warming. The Africa also group boycotted the
proceedings briefly.
The talks resumed after the BASIC bloc succeeded in
extracting an assurance from the Chair that the summit would
proceed in a "fully transparent" manner without any
"surprises".
Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh made it
clear that the goal now is to produce two texts under the Long
Term Cooperative Action (LCA) track and KP tracks by Wednesday
or Thursday morning.
The BASIC bloc and Africa want the developed countries
to make mitigation pledges under the second commitment period
from 2013-2018 but the European Union, Australia, Japan,
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) want a document
broader than the existing Protocol that puts obligations on
the United States and on emerging economies. MORE PTI