New Delhi – Contradictory views on the success or failure of the upcoming global climate summit in Copenhagen emerged Tuesday in the Indian capital with the Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh saying the meet would be at a 'dead end' if a Danish draft proposal urging the world to adopt 2020 as the year when emissions will peak is put forward.
At the same time, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chief R.K.Pachauri told newsmen in New Delhi that thanks to recent announcements by the United States and China, there may be a deal at the summit while asking India to shift towards renewable energy sources from fossil fuels and to bargain for large-scale resources to finance its solar mission.
He said "India is at the crossroads" while urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attend the final two days of the Dec 7-18 climate summit in Copenhagen. "This will be important, as it will signify that India is a deal maker and not a deal breaker." .
Pachauri predicted that US President Barack Obama's announcement that his country would cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 17 percent by 2020, compared to 2005, and China's announcement that it would reduce the GHG-intensity of its economy by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005, and would put more pressure on India to come up with similar quantitative commitments.
He laid down three criteria for success at Copenhagen -- first, a collective emission reduction target by industrialized countries by 2020, which he said would be "good if it was 20 percent"; second, financial assistance to developing countries to cope with climate change effects; and third, transfer of green technologies cheap, perhaps through a technology fund..
While Pachauri sounded optimistic, the Indian Minister Ramesh told NDTV television channel: "If the Denmark draft is any indication then we are heading to a dead end. The draft, which is not based on realistic estimations, is totally unacceptable to us.
Stressing that there was no question of taking binding emission cuts, he said major emerging economies like India, China, South Africa and Brazil (BASIC group of nations) had prepared their own draft in Beijing last week to counter the Danish draft. This, he felt, "is more into what our expectations and objectives are."
"It is yet to get the support of the G-77. It will be unveiled tomorrow at the Copenhagen, giving our side of the view and our non-negotiable position," he said. .
Ramesh, who was on a two-day visit to China over the weekend, along with counterparts from Brazil and South Africa, signed the 10-page draft which is being conceived as a counter to the text that will be released by western countries next week as a possible basis for talks at the meet slated to start on December 7.
"It meets our expectations and aspirations and supports our non-negotiable stands of no binding emission cuts, mitigation and adaptation actions to be supported by the international fund and no peaking year to be declared at the international forum," Ramesh added.
Pachauri, who heads the IPCC -- the group of over 2,500 scientists worldwide that brings out the benchmark assessment reports on climate change, said: "The Copenhagen summit also gives us an opportunity to look at India's long-term future."
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