India will be more flexible at Cancun climate talks: Ramesh

NEW DELHI - India is willing to show more flexibility and will play a leadership role at the climate change talks in Cancun next month to ensure a constructive outcome, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Wednesday.

Speaking after the end of a two-day Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on ‘Climate Change: Technology Mechanism’, Ramesh said that in Cancun countries must arrive at a conclusion as this was the “last chance” to strike a deal.

“We are running out of time and Cancun is the last chance. The credibility of the climate change mechanism is at stake. Every country has shown some flexibility, even the BASIC (Brazil, India, South Africa and China) group have demonstrated flexibility. Their position has been fundamental and not fundamentalist,” the minister told reporters here.

“We don’t want to repeat Copenhagen but want Cancun to succeed. We will ensure whatever needs to be done with Mexico to come out with a set of decisions. We will play a leadership role both as India and member of BASIC countries,” he said.

The BASIC group has been blamed for failure of the Copenhagen Summit last year. The summit only resulted in the Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding document that listed steps need to be taken to mitigate climate change.

Ramesh also emphasised on extending the second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of Cancun Summit to be held from Nov 29-Dec 10.

The Kyoto Protocol is the only legal document available that aims at fighting global warming. The protocol expires by the end of 2012.

“Technology and finance are two essential pillars of any international climate change treaty. We discussed how a technology mechanism will function. We want Cancun conference to succeed,” he said.

According to the environment minister, the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for technology transfer is also an important matter to be discussed at Cancun.

“There have been two groups - one in favour of removal of IPR barriers for technology transfer to developing countries and the other saying they won’t be part of technology transfer if IPR is included. This needs to be sorted out…may be it won’t be possible at Cancun but after that,” he added.

Ministers and representatives from 35 countries, regional groupings and UN organisations participated to discuss the creation and operationalisation of a Technology Mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).