Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has come in for praise from German Chancellor Angela Merkela and a Maldivian minister for his “important contribution” and for bridging gaps on contentious issues at the UN climate conference.
After her talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Berlin, Ms Merkel said “Indian minister Ramesh has made important contributions” at the Cancun conference.
The two-week long conference closed on Friday with a “Cancun Agreement” to curb global warming, including a $100 billion fund to help developing countries. The agreement marked some progress for finance, technology, adaptation and transparency, but isn’t viewed as a decisive boost for combating climate change.
“The minister (Ramesh) has been instrumental in bridging gaps,” Mohamed Aslam, the environment minister of Maldives, told PTI.
“He has been reaching out to the AOSIS nations as well as to developed countries,” he said.
Aslam was referring to the Alliance of Small Island States, which are most vulnerable to climate change and want developed countries as well as emerging economies, especially China and India, to take on hefty legally binding emission cuts.
The UN climate conference on early hours of Saturday reached a “compromise” to set up a &100 billion ‘Green Fund’ to fight global warming, a decision India described as an “important step forward”, but there was no agreement on extending the landmark Kyoto Protocol on emissions cuts beyond 2012.
“We are very happy with the text,” Mr Ramesh earlier said, noting that the major emerging economies — Brazil, South Africa, India and China (Basic) — had welcomed the decision.
“Cancun represents an important step forward,” he said.