Critics accused India's environment minister on Friday of selling out to wealthy nations at climate change talks in Mexico by saying New Delhi might accept binding emission cut targets.
Critics accused
India
's
environment minister on Friday of selling out to wealthy nations at climate
change talks in
Mexico
by saying
New Delhi
might accept binding emission
cut targets.
Ramesh on Thursday offered an olive branch to try to break the logjam in the
U.N. climate negotiations in
Cancun
,
Mexico
,
saying for the first time
India
could
consider entering a legally binding emissions reduction agreement.
India, the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, has until now held the
burden of cuts should be on developed countries and that it can't commit to
binding targets because they might hurt its ability to lift hundreds of
millions of its population out of poverty.
However, as diplomacy intensified with the talks entering their final lap,
Ramesh said: "All countries must take binding commitments under an
appropriate legal form."
He said
India
would
wait to see the shape of a future agreement before signing up "because we
don't know the content," including whether countries would face penalties
for non-compliance.
Ramesh's dramatic shift in climate change policy triggered fierce domestic
criticism from opposition parties and some environmentalists.
"Jairam Ramesh will have to explain this overnight change in existing
policy. He has clearly exceeded his mandate," Prakash Javdekar, spokesman
for the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, told Indian news channel NDTV.
"This is going to harm the country's interests," he said.
Sunita Narain, head of the Center for Science and Environment in
New
Delhi
, said Ramesh had succumbed to
U.S.
pressure.
"We have given so much but have got nothing in return," said Narain. "He
is selling
India
for
few peanuts."
Brinda Karat, a leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said:
"This is a sellout and it's extremely unfortunate that this should have
happened."
Negotiators in
Cancun
, however, said they saw
steady progress in setting up the framework for a future climate fund to help
poor nations.
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