Cancun was disappointing, don’t expect much at Durban: Ramesh
By IANSFriday, February 4, 2011
NEW DELHI - Terming the climate change talks at Cancun last year as “disappointing”, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Friday said the world should not expect much from the UN climate conference in Durban scheduled later this year.
Speaking at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here, Ramesh said: “One should be realistic and should not hope for what we will not be able to accomplish at Durban, else we begin another disappointment.”
“If you ask me from the environmental point of view, Cancun was a disappointment but from the political point of view, it was an advancement,” he said.
He listed four issues where no final decision would take place at Durban but stressed continuing efforts.
“I don’t see any agreement on the second commitment period for Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding agreement on emission cuts, the controversy over 2 degrees Celsius versus 1.5 degrees Celsius global goal for temperature rise and peak year for emission cuts,” Ramesh said.
“I see a great difficulty seeing a concrete result at Durban. We are not going to get a final pronouncement on these issues in Durban. It doesn’t mean we stop working. Cancun provided us with a work plan and we should stop interpreting and rather implement it,” he said.
“Cancun should be seen as a template of actionable point that will end at Durban. It laid out a work plan on eight issues - shared division, adaptation, mitigation, Kyoto protocol, forestry, market mechanism, technology transfer, and finance,” he added.
According to the minister, these are a series of action points on which further work needs to be done in the run-up to the Durban meet.
“India is concerned about climate change and we will continue to approach the environment in a pro-active manner. We will play a constructive role to contribute to a solution acceptable to all the parties,” he said.
Ramesh said India has not given its red lines and there was no compromise at Cancun. He also favoured carbon tax on use of fossil fuel but said it would be difficult to get all the countries on board.
