Red lines drawn for Jairam Ramesh

The Union cabinet drew clear red lines on environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s negotiating brief for the Copenhagen climate talks on Thursday and instructed him not to deviate from the established position of the developing countries.

The cabinet decision was a heads up for the government’s climate change negotiators who have been at war with Ramesh over the way he has been trying to “tweak” India’s negotiating position to bring it in line with the demands of the developed world.

Ramesh left for the Danish capital on Thursday night for the penultimate round of negotiations before world leaders arrive next week to finalise the political declaration that will set the framework for post-Copenhagen discussions on a new international climate treaty.

It was apparent from the tone and tenor of the discussions at the cabinet meeting that there were few takers even within the government for Ramesh’s approach to the ongoing climate negotiations. Among those who questioned the environment minister’s shuffles were commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, roads and highways minister Kamal Nath and power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Ramesh has already been criticised by industry representatives and opposition parties for deviating from the established line on climate change. Opposition parties have accused him of weakening India’s negotiating position by revealing the bottomline from the beginning.

Interestingly, it was Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia who rose to Ramesh’s defence each time during the cabinet meeting. He spoke strongly in favour of setting targets for carbon reduction and maintained that the 20 - 25% cuts announced by Ramesh last week in Parliament would not affect the growth of the economy.

However, Sharma and Shinde questioned the Planning Commission’s calculations. Shinde pointed out that GDP growth means more energy consumption which means more carbon emissions. He voiced concern that the target for carbon reduction would affect plans for increasing power production.

The volley of queries and the concerns voiced by his colleagues had Ramesh on the backfoot. He was forced to concede on several points and he backtracked on one very important issue, which is the question of international verification of the reduction targets he had announced. In Parliament, Ramesh had hinted that India could consider agreeing to international scrutiny. But after vociferous objections from opposition leaders in the Rajya Sabha and then criticism from his cabinet colleagues, the minister ate his words. He assured the cabinet that all targets and domestic actions by India that are not supported by foreign finance and technology would only be put up to the United Nations for “information”, not “consideration”, as he had suggested earlier.

Climate change experts say this is an important commitment by the minister because it restores the earlier position from which he had shifted.

Ramesh is believed to have told the cabinet that India will stick to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Control and the Bali Action Plan. He also endorsed the per capita emission principle and agreed that the concept of common but
differentiated responsibility would be maintained.