07-16-2009, 08:24 AM
<b>Negotiators slam India's climate flip at Italy forum</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->NEW DELHI: India's endorsement of the climate declaration at the Major Economies Forum in Italy has split its top climate negotiators. In a strong dissent, one of the negotiators called <b>Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's signing on to the statement a "body blow to everything that we (the Indian officials) have fought for"</b>.
In his letter to the government, the negotiator, a senior government official, said "India's poor will pay the price for this political declaration".
He added, "Irrespective of the positive spin we might give, the honest truth is that the document boxes India in an extremely weak corner. I feel broken and let down. I hope I am wrong and I am afraid to be proven right." The communication lays it bare that the statement had taken the negotiators by surprise and can potentially set off the stage for huge uproar.
The clause in the MEF statement that rise in global temperatures be capped at 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels has been interpreted as indirectly foisting emission caps on India ^ something that the country doggedly refused to do on the ground that it would hinder its development.
Now the fear has been endorsed by at least one of the negotiators on government records.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->NEW DELHI: India's endorsement of the climate declaration at the Major Economies Forum in Italy has split its top climate negotiators. In a strong dissent, one of the negotiators called <b>Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's signing on to the statement a "body blow to everything that we (the Indian officials) have fought for"</b>.
In his letter to the government, the negotiator, a senior government official, said "India's poor will pay the price for this political declaration".
He added, "Irrespective of the positive spin we might give, the honest truth is that the document boxes India in an extremely weak corner. I feel broken and let down. I hope I am wrong and I am afraid to be proven right." The communication lays it bare that the statement had taken the negotiators by surprise and can potentially set off the stage for huge uproar.
The clause in the MEF statement that rise in global temperatures be capped at 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels has been interpreted as indirectly foisting emission caps on India ^ something that the country doggedly refused to do on the ground that it would hinder its development.
Now the fear has been endorsed by at least one of the negotiators on government records.
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