India against move to ease out rich nations from emission cuts

India today took umbrage at a move it believes is intended to help rich countries get out of their commitments on emission cuts, as negotiators from 193 countries struggled to find common ground at climate talks here.

Opening a new front, small island nations floated their own draft, which is seen by India as an attempt to bracket developed and developing nations together by junking the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, under which rich nations have to undertake legally-binding emission cuts.

Led by Tuvalu, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) circulated a draft -- 'Copenhagen Protocol' --  that calls for amendments to the Kyoto Protocol.

"Today we have put forward a proposal for a legally binding agreement to secure the twin objectives of survival of the Kyoto Protocol to strengthen the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with a new 'Copenhagen Protocol' that can be adopted here in Copenhagen," said ambassador of Grenada, Dessima Williams.

The new draft follows the Danish proposal and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) document.

Unhappy with the AOSIS move, India said it will not accept any changes or extension to the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only legally binding document that imposes emission reduction targets on industrialised countries, excluding US.

India's environment secretary Vijay Sharma said the new proposals amounted to "bracket" together rich countries and emerging economies, and weaken legal obligations of developed nations under Kyoto protocol.

"We believe our proposal provides a fresh way of looking at how existing proposals from many different countries can be assembled into a coherent legal form while maintaining the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and the primacy function of the UNFCCC," ambassador of Cape Verde, Antonio Lima, said.

India views the small nations' move as a strategy of the European Union to weaken the Kyoto Protocol and get out of the commitments made in the document.

"We want the standing of the Kyoto Protocol to be maintained," Sharma told reporters here. "We are looking to making the roots of the Kyoto Protocol stronger and go deeper into emission cuts for the developed countries."

Contending that time was "inopportune" to look at new issues, he said, "We have an existing mandate on which we are working, and we must complete that. We have deadlines under the Bali Action Plan", which mandates that developed countries have to take legally binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft proposals of Tuvalu and the AOSIS are inconsistent and in conflict with convention provisions pertinent to equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, he said.

"Many of these proposals are bracketing the Annex 1 (countries mentioned under the Protocol that should take cuts) and non-Annex 1 countries, and may be allowing Annex 1 to abandon Kyoto," Sharma said.

While Tuvalu asked India and China to take emission cuts like other developed countries, the AOSIS required the two countries to report on their national voluntary measures, envoy of Dominica, Crispin S Gregoire, said.