India at Cancun

India at Cancun

By Dr Arvind Kumar

India’s role in the recently-concluded climate change summit in Cancun (Mexico) has been a balanced one. India not only played a leading role in the negotiations but also ensured that most of its concerns were addressed. A couple of days before the conclusion of the summit, it was feared that India might be forced into making its voluntary pledges to reduce the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions a “legally-binding” commitment. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s extempore statement, that kept the issue open-ended, also added fuel to the fire. However, as the final Cancun Agreements show, India was able to resist the pressure.

The agreements have five insertions which are at India's behest. In the section on shared vision, the figure of 50 per cent has been dropped from identifying a global goal for substantially reducing emissions by 2050. Secondly, the phrase access to sustainable development has been introduced in the context of working towards identifying a time-frame for global peaking of greenhouse gas emission based on the best available scientific knowledge. The one thing India lost out on was the non-inclusion of the issue of intellectual property rights in the technology-sharing mechanism. India wanted an explicit commitment to let the talks continue on the inclusion of patented technologies in the technology-sharing mechanism, which has been almost decided. However, the Agreements do not contain this assurance.

In view of the ‘tentative groundwork’ prepared by the Cancun Summit, some experts have called for ‘significant leadership’ from India, China and the European Union to strengthen the agreement before next year's climate summit, scheduled in Durban, South Africa.