Copenhagen, December 18: India on Friday acknowledged that it expected no concrete outcome from the Copenhagen Climate Conference and called for a collective and global effort to come out with a plan in the year 2010.
Addressing the conference, PM Manmohan Singh reiterated India’s position on any kind of deal that may emerge from negotiations. He said India stood for the principle of equity and respective capability.
He emphasised that a vast majority of countries did not support any dilution on the pacts agreed upon in Rio and in Kyoto. “To settle for something less would be settling for diminished expectations and actions which will be a wrong message coming out of this conference.”
Singh said the agreements under the Kyoto protocol should be followed by the agreeing nations, including the developed ones. “Need for action on our part is more now than it was during Rio. Bali mandate should thus be followed, he added.
Singh said India was one of the worst sufferers due to climate change and had huge stakes in the climate conference. On its own, he said, India had decided on a national action plan which includes the following: 20K MW solar energy by 2022, improving energy efficiency by 20% by 2020, adding additional 6mn hectares of forests over the next 6 years etc.
“We will do more if a supportive global climate regime is in place,” he declared.
“India will not be found wanting,” he stressed.
India also made known that it stood by the smaller states. “Those worst affected are the least responsible. Injustice should not prevail for Africa, Small Island States and Least Developed Countries- where survival as a viable nation is in jeopardy.
“We will all play a positive and constructive role so that we can bridge the differences to achieve a balanced and equitable outcome,” the PM concluded.
Before addressing the summmit, the PM held a meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to consolidate the position of developing countries.
During his meeting with Wen, Singh recalled that the two countries have been cooperating at various fora, including the G-20.
“We need to continue the cooperation,” said the Prime Minister, who arrived in the Danish capital late last night to take part in the high-level segment UN climate talks.
India and China are the key members of the BASIC bloc — with others being Brazil and South Africa — which along with other developing countries have been resisting attempts by the rich nations to set aside the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The protocol sets legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for industrialised nations. It also has a strong compliance mechanism which penalises the rich nations if they do not meet emission reduction targets agreed upon by them.
Besides Jiabao, he also held a quick meeting with US President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, South African President Jacob Zuma were reportedly among leaders of other major economies who attended the meeting.
–Agencies