India
sets Tuesday night deadline
When
the first heads of state arrive at Copenhagen on Wednesday,
they must have an agreed text to look at, says India’s
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. - Morten Andersen -
14/12/2009 - According to The Economic Times of India, Environment
Minister Jairam Ramesh “categorically” insists
that an agreed text on a global deal reaching beyond the
present period of the Kyoto Protocol must be worked out
during the night of Tuesday, December 15.
“Ministers and heads of state and government cannot
negotiate a text. The heads of state and government will
be arriving from December 16 and they have to work on adopting
a political statement,” Jairam Ramesh says.
According
to the Indian newspaper, the country is contributing to
reaching a deal by “displaying flexibility in its
climate change position by offering to adopt the international
guidelines under the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC)” – meaning India is prepared
to let the UNFCCC verify that internationally funded projects
are yielding the expected results.
“We
have agreed to a national communication once in two years
for both supported and unsupported actions. For the unsupported
efforts the monitoring will be domestic only. The manner
in which we do our domestic evaluation would be on the international
guidelines as prepared by UNFCCC,” says Jairam Ramesh.
According
to The Economic Times of India, this approach should satisfy
both the international community – seeking verifiability
– and the domestic audience, who fear India will give
away too much control over its own development.
Mr.
Ramesh also dismisses any suggestions of replacing the Kyoto
Protocol with an alternative agreement: “India is
not here to renegotiate agreement. The mandate enables (the)
existing two track approach of the Kyoto Protocol and the
Long-term Co-operative Action to move ahead. The two tracks
must be completed by 2010 at the latest.”
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