Ramesh's conversation with UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC) executive secretary Christiana Figueres is the first time an Indian minister formally suggested to a UN official or foreign negotiator that the west need not be asked to accept deeper emission cuts.
He also told Figueres that India and other countries should now work for a legal framework to Cancun Agreements signed in December 2010, which the government has said imperils the Kyoto Protocol and leaves it in limbo.
In the minutes of Ramesh's meeting with the highest UN official on climate change accessed by TOI, the minister's position is contrary to what the government has said on record and maintains publicly. As recently as June, the government demanded at the Bonn negotiations that the US and other developed countries agree to emission cuts ranging from 40% to 50% below 1990 levels and ensure their emissions peak by 2012. This, instead of the 13-18% emission cuts these nations are willing to accept so far. Read the full report here.
Source: Nitin Sethi, TNN, New Delhi.
