India attacks Danes for keeping political statement secret

Betwa Sharma

Copenhagen, Dec 17 (PTI) As prospects of a deal to combat
global warming appeared bleak at marathon talks here, India
Thursday attacked host Denmark for keeping the political
statement under wraps even as the US accused emerging nations
of "backing away" from scrutiny of their climate actions.

Hours before the key segment of the 12-day climate talks,
to be attended by over 100 world leaders including Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama,
opened here, Environment Minister of India Jairam Ramesh said
"the continued reluctance of the Danes to reveal the political
outcome is most baffling."

"We don't know the content of the text," he said. "All
along the objective was to delay, delay and delay. What has
happened in this COP (Conference of Parties) is unprecedented
in global negotiations and it really is most disappointing for
India and other countries. It is wrong, it is mischievous...
We want to be constructive."

India said a handful of developed countries led by
Britain were working out a surprise political text.

No developing country was involved in drafting of the
text and there is great concern that it will be sprung up as a
surprise at the heads of state level talks where it is
difficult to counter and oppose the contents, Ramesh said.

Seeking to give an impetus to the faltering talks,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US will mobilise
USD 100 billion yearly till 2020 if developing countries agree
to "transparency" in national commitments as she accused the
emerging economies of "backing away" from making their climate
actions open to scrutiny.

Clinton attacked the emerging nations for reneging on
promises to make national mitigation targets open to scrutiny.

"There have been occasions in this past year when all the
major economies have committed to transparency," she said.
"Now that we are trying to define what transparency means
and how we would both implement it and observe it, there's a
backing away from transparency and that to us is something
that undermines the whole effort we're engaged in," she said.

Noting that the "difficult" climate talks had reached a
"critical juncture," she told a press conference that time was
running out to reach a "common ground" and take a "historic
step that we can all be proud of".

Most of the officials are still pinning their hopes on a
last minute breakthrough. The discussion on the two negotiated
texts resumed last evening after a 12-hour delay.

"I am still hopeful that during the course of the day we
might be able to salvage something," Ramesh told reporters,
but also expressed concern that the developed countries would
try to block and slow down the process as much as possible.

If the talks fail, it would be because the developed
countries have not fulfilled their commitments under the Kyoto
Protocol, he said. "The developing countries led by India,
China, Brazil, South Africa, the African group and the G-77
have worked very hard to bring the negotiations back on track.
The blame should not be laid on our doorstep."

"The blame is fairly and squarely with the developed
countries and I'm very happy that one of the positive outcomes
of Copenhagen is the cementing of ties between India and
China," he said.

Ramesh said the industrialised nations were focussed on
killing the Kyoto Protocol and that it remained in the
"intensive care unit".

"We are aware of the Western countries' propaganda to
hold developing countries responsible (for faltering talks).
We have gone out of our way to bring negotiations back on
track," Ramesh said.

"The way the negotiations are gone, the entire process is
flawed and the trust deficit has accumulated. No sincere
effort has been made by Denmark to reduce the deficit."

As divisions sharpened between developed and developing
nations on the way forward, Clinton said there should be no
doubt about the commitment of the US in realising a successful
pact at Copenhagen and meeting this great global challenge
together. But, ultimately "this must be a common effort".

"I want to underscore what I said -- in the absence of
an operational agreement that meets the requirements I
outlined (about transparency), there will not be that kind of
financial commitment from the United States," she said.
"Hundred billion dollars is a lot of money... 100 billion
dollars is appropriate, usable and will be effective."

India has maintained that it will not open its national
emission reduction targets and "unsupported action" to
international scrutiny, and it will only be assessed by its
Parliament and informed to the UN.

The issue has been a bone of contention at climate talks
with developed world insisting that domestic actions be made
"transparent" for a credible agreement while India, China and
other developing nations have resisted this. PTI BS