India working for coordinated position with US, other key players at climate change meet, says Jairam Ramesh

Betwa Sharma
Copenhagen, Dec 18 (PTI) As world leaders raced
against time to hammer out a deal to combat global warming,
India Friday said it was working with the US and other key
negotiators to try to work out a "coordinated" position at the
climate change meet here.
US Chief Negotiator Todd Stern "expressed support for
some of the elements but disagreed with some of the other
elements that we have suggested. We are trying to work out a
coordinated position," Environment Minister of India Jairam
Ramesh told reporters here.
India and the US also held discussions on the
contentious issue of monitoring, review and verification (MRV)
and made some progress but there was no major breakthrough.
"Seventyfive per cent of the formula has been
accepted," Ramesh said.
However, the remaining 25 per cent stems from the
review mechanism issue where India insists that it will
provide only information while the US is pushing for a mire
consultative mechanism. "The Americans still want some review
mechanism that we cannot agree to," he said.
After the meeting, Ramesh said that he told the
Americans, "You should be transparent about the word
transparency."
With negotiations reaching a final stage at the
climate change meet, Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh
arrived here Thursday night to lead the Indian delegation at
the crucial talks. (More) PTI