Cracks have developed among India and three other developing countries on accepting legally-binding emission cut at the climate change summit here, with environment minister Jairam Ramesh saying there is concerted pressure on the country and China to accept such cuts.
Rejecting legally-binding emission cuts, Mr Ramesh said India, China and the US are not in favour of it though such a move is supported by other developed countries, and several nations within the G-77 including African nations and least developed countries.
“There is a concerted move by a group of developed countries using developing countries to put pressure on India and China and within BASIC, since South Africa and Brazil are supportive of a legally binding agreement,” Mr Ramesh said. India was not ready to show flexibility at this stage on the issue of binding emission cuts and will insist on a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol which is set to expire in 2012, he said. “There can be no flexibility on these,” he added.
As per Kyoto Protocol, rich nations are supposed to take legally-binding emission cuts, while no such provision exists for developing countries.
India, along with most of other developing countries, has been maintaining that taking up binding emissions cuts will hamper its growth, including poverty alleviation efforts.
Referring to the “flexible” stance taken by India in the past one year since the Copenhagen climate meet, Mr Ramesh said India’s position on climate change has been evolving and needs to evolve further.
Earlier in the day cracks appeared between India, China and developing nations even among BASIC countries. The BASIC group comprise Brazil, South Africa, India and China.