With the US asking emerging economies to 'wrap up' their national emission reduction commitments into a global pact, India on Thursday made it clear that it would not accept any internationally binding agreement and that its climate change targets were not up for review.
"We already have an agreement... we are quite prepared through our national communications to report what we are doing, but that is for the purpose of information only," Chandrashekar Dasgupta, senior Indian negotiator at the climate change meet told PTI.
"It is not subject to review, to verification, to re-negotiation, to dialogue or any such thing. It is a nationally determined voluntary target ... nothing less, nothing more," said Dasgupta, who has also served as the Indian ambassador to China and European Union.
India has set a goal of 20 to 25 per cent reduction in carbon intensity by 2020, compared to the 2005 levels.
Dasgupta's remarks came a day after US special envoy on climate change, Todd Stern, said that emerging countries like India, China and South Africa would not be given a 'pass' on carbon emissions.
Stern said the developing countries had made 'significant' proposals but these would have to be 'wrapped up' in a global agreement and not captured in a 'press release domestically'.
He emphasised that putting such commitments in a legally binding agreement was essential for 'transparency' in the international community, which could then gauge how the crisis was being resolved.
In the BASIC draft prepared by India, China, Brazil and South Africa, countries taking nationally voluntary measures are obligated to report on how these are going through national communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the implementation of these targets are up for internal domestic review only.
Stern, the US climate change chief, also said that while China had made significant commitments, the world would like to see more. He urged Beijing to make 'a real commitment,' highlighting that while the US emissions were flattening out and then going down, China's emissions were steadily rising.
The US announced carbon emission cuts in the range of 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 per cent by 2050. China is aiming to reduce carbon intensity by 40 to 45 per cent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.
The Indian side noted here that if the US was assessing the 'adequacy' of China's commitment, India could be up next for this assessment, which negated the basic fact that these announced targets were 'voluntary' and could not be subjected to an adequacy check.
"What Todd Stern said yesterday about China's target of reduction in emission intensity is very significant because it shows how an attempt will be made to re-negotiate these upwards," Dasgupta said.
"The same thing could be done to our domestic voluntary target of reducing carbon intensity by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020. If it is subjected to considerations of so-called adequacy, attempts would be made to force us to renegotiate this upwards," he said.
Dasgupta warned against trying to convert India's domestic commitments into any internationally binding pact and subjecting it to any form of adequacy testing.
"We are not accepting any binding target so we have to be very careful in reporting this as a voluntary target as information only, not for any type of consideration or review," the senior Indian diplomat said.
The Indian side noted that the US could not subject China and other nations to adequacy test.
