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Climate change discussions were deferred after India and other growing nations left the meeting halfway, raising their voice against the industrialized nations, who were trying to avoid responsibility in dealing with global warming.
The discussions, however, resumed after the BASIC bloc including India, China, Brazil and South Africa was given an assurance from the chair that the meeting would continue in a "fully transparent" way and would not have any "surprises".
Pointing out to the agreement that urges developed nations to go for carbon emission cuts beyond 2012, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said "There was concern that the Kyoto Protocol track was not given the importance it deserves".
Resuming after a weekend break, the discussions drew the wrath of African nations and other members of G77 and BASIC bloc for not showing full support for the Kyoto Protocol. They walked out of the conference enraged by this issue.
The ministers, who are taking part in the discussions, had a meeting with Connie Hedegaard, president of the 15th Conference of Parties. The ministers urged an assurance from her that Kyoto Protocol would get an immediate attention, especially to decide on the emission reduction targets for the second commitment period.
After having a 45-minute ministerial-level meet with Hedegaard, Ramesh said "The issue has been resolved".
The G77 leaders and China, who were also participating in the talks with Hedegaard, expressed their concern over the issue and told that the industrialized nations were "plotting" to weaken the value of Kyoto Protocol.
Sudan's envoy and co-head of the G-77, Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping said "What we have is a situation that developed countries where issues pertaining to Kyoto Protocol were not on the table and that led the Africa group to make a decision to the president that we shall not participate in any negotiations until the issues of Kyoto Protocol are discussed".
He added "We know that the developed countries have made the decision that they would want to kill the Kyoto Protocol in order to change the balance of obligations between developed countries and developing countries".
The Kyoto Protocol is an international pact that decides mandatory targets for 37 developed economies to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to an average of 5% against 1990 standards over the span of 5 years from 2008 to 2012.
Hedegaard assured that it would not have any surprises and all the ministers would take part in the informal consultations. Ramesh informed that till now only few ministers were participating in the meeting hinting at the COP-15 Chair.
DNA
December 14, 2009
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