It is indeed heartening to see India taking a tough stand against the rich developed countries of the world at last on the issue of environmental pollution. Whether it is the Rio de Janeiro meet or the Kyoto protocol, developing countries like India have been bullied into accepting emission limits or caps (mainly on carbon dioxide) that are unrealistic considering that the First World countries that insist on these caps are far worse polluters themselves. In other words, we have a situation of the worst offenders preaching sermons to countries that have far lower emission levels. What is much worse, we now have rich countries sending out both tacit and explicit calls to the comity of nations to bury the Kyoto protocol that has become inconvenient for them. Countries like the United States that have about five per cent of the world’s population, consume over 25 per cent of the world’s fossil fuel. Not surprisingly, these countries also have the world’s highest levels of environmental pollution. And yet they are the ones to instruct others on what their levels of emission ought to be! Most of the developing countries have tolerated this arrogance for much too long. Even India was no exception to this cowardly stance.
However, the Commonwealth conference of heads of governments at Trinidad has marked a departure from this stance of abject surrender to the rich developed countries of the world that are responsible not only for most of the CO2 emissions of the world but also for serious damage to the ozone layer. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated the link between accepting an “ambitious” global target for cutting down on global emission and clear commitments on sharing the technological and fiscal burdens. Considering the controversies over India accepting emission limits and unilateral announcements of targets by countries like China, Dr Manmohan Singh’s speech at the CHOGM came out as a strong refutation of calls to bury the Kyoto protocol. He made it clear that scuttling the Kyoto protocol would undermine future legally binding agreements as well. “India is willing to sign on to an ambitious global target for emissions reductions or limiting temperature increase, but this must be accompanied by an equitable burden-sharing paradigm. We acknowledge the imperative of science, but science must not trump equity,” he said. He also reminded the developed world that the Bali action plan, adopted in December 2007, had laid out the goal of an “agreed outcome” at this month’s Copenhagen summit which is expected to take forward the process of implementing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change specifically with regard to mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology.
The Copenhagen summit this month is likely to see at least some muted fireworks because major developing countries like India, China, Brazil and South Africa have had their fill of kowtowing to the unjust line of the First World countries and have decided to work in unison against such unjust dispensations. They have decided to prepare a joint front for tough negotiations with rich nations at the summit. The four-country BASIC block has agreed to a strategy that involves walking out of the conference together if western nations try to force terms on the developing world, according to Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests. Last Saturday, he told reporters in Beijing, “We will not exit in isolation. We will coordinate our exit if any of our non-negotiable terms is violated. Our entry and exit will be collective.” Since a country like China is involved, one has to keep one’s fingers crossed. Even so, the battle against the big bullies seems to be on, and many more sensible nations are likely to join the bandwagon in the days to come. THE SENTINEL
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