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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'Consult' means review? Govt will face House heat today by Amitabh Sinha

'Consult' means review? Govt will face House heat today by Amitabh Sinha

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published Published on Dec 21, 2009   modified Modified on Dec 21, 2009

Having stitched together a climate deal at Copenhagen with a select group of countries, the government will have to do some explaining in Parliament on Tuesday on some provisions in the Copenhagen Accord, especially those relating to international verification of voluntary action taken by India on climate change.

The government is expected to argue that agreeing to allow “international consultations and analysis” is in no way a matter of concern.

India’s strongly held stand so far had been that it would not allow any international scrutiny or “review” of its actions on climate change except for those supported by finance and technology from the developed countries.

However, critics say the phrase “international consultations and analysis” is much more accommodating and open to different interpretations — depending who is doing the interpreting.

So it wasn’t a surprise that both the Left and the BJP criticized the manner in which the deal was arrived at and the provisions it entails. They will find some vindication in remarks by David Axelrod, a senior White House Advisor — considered close to US President Barack Obama — that the United States would not only “review” the implementation of domestic actions by India and China but also “challenge” them if the stated goals are not met.

“Now, China, India have set goals. We are going to be able to review what they are doing. We are going to be able to challenge them if they do not meet those goals,” Axelrod was reported by PTI as having told the CNN on Sunday.

The official view from the Indian government is that “consultations and analysis” is very different from review. “What we are saying (is) that we are ready to clarify and discuss our actions in the open. We are completely transparent about that. But we will not allow any reassessment of data and we don’t want other countries telling us that our actions are insufficient to achieve the global goals on reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

The United States has been particularly insistent on having this review clause. However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is leant to have told Obama in Copenhagen that he was in no position to agree to a provision that would be rejected by his Parliament.

Obama is said to have expressed his own constraints and requested some flexibility from India and China to be able to convince the US Senate to back the actions his government planned to take on climate change. A compromise was, therefore, worked out wherein both the governments would be able to interpret provisions in their own way.

Meanwhile, the way India sidestepped the G-77 group of developing countries to agree to the deal with a select group of nations has reinforced the view that the UN might no longer be the most appropriate forum to take big decisions on climate change. And that a smaller group of major stakeholders — something like the G-20 on economic matters — would be more appropriate.

Meanwhile, Germany’s director general of foreign policy and security advisor Christoph Heusgen today visited Delhi with discussions on the climate deal one of the top items on his agenda. Heusgen called on NSA M K Narayanan and the two are learnt to have spent considerable time discussing the implications of the Copenhagen Accord for their respective countries.


The Indian Express, 22 December, 2009, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/consult-means-review-govt-will-face-house-heat-today/557613/
 

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