As negotiations on climate change gathered momentum here, India has said it will play a constructive role even as it slammed efforts of the developed world to make domestic emission cut commitments of developing nations legally binding and verifiable. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said India's voluntary domestic measures to tackle global warming were not up for international scrutiny and progress on these would be checked only by the country's Parliament. He said India would not agree to the concept of ''peaking,'' a clause incorporated in the first official draft which mandated developing nations to cap their emissions although it did not mention any time frame for that. Mr. Ramesh said the ''peaking'' clause would adversely impact the development of rural electricity in the country already facing a huge backlog in this area. While ruling out any dilution of the previously-stated ''red lines'' drawn by India, the Minister said he had ''come here to play a constructive, facilitative, leadership role to ensure an effective and equitable agreement." His comments came in the backdrop of a clash between India and the European Union on the contentious issue of making domestic commitments legally binding and verifiable. European Commission Director-General Karl Falkenberger said that the EU expected India, China and other emerging economies to report on their national mitigation programmes which would be incorporated in an international treaty. ''We need these contributions from everyone. We need them in a legally binding manner from everyone. Differentiated commitments, we can accept, but it has to be verifiable,'' he said. The remarks drew objection from India, with senior negotiator Chandrashekar Dasgupta noting that Mr. Falkenberger's position fell short of climate justice.
The Hindu, December 12, 2009
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