India played 'key role' in facilitating Cancun outcome: Govt

NEW DELHI: Asserting that India played "a key role" in facilitating the outcome of Cancun meet, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today said his constant effort has been to ensure that the country's negotiations on climate change are guided by the need to protect its economic growth.

The Minister, while making a suo motu statement in Rajya Sabha on the developments that took place at the Climate Change Conference held at Cancun, also said, "the Cancun decisions have ensured that the multilateral dialogue process at the global level does not get side-stepped."

"As a result of our active role, deadlock on several issues could be broken and the parties could take a step forward," he said.

Citing a letter written by him to MPs after his return from Cancun," Ramesh said, "My effort at Cancun was to safeguard our position while showing a level of sensitivity to the view on this issue held by the majority countries, including some of our developing country partners."

In his letter, he had clarified that "a legally binding agreement is not acceptable to India "at this stage" and said that he did not make any commitment on India undertaking absolute emission cuts.

"I sincerely believe that a nuancing of our position on this issue will expand negotiating options for India and give us an all round strength in negotiations," the Minister, who faced flak for indicating India's willingness to accept greenhouse gas emission at Cancun, said in the statement.

"The world community looks up to India as a constructive, solution-providing player in the global negotiations. My constant effort has been to ensure that our negotiating stance on climate change is guided by the need to protect our economic growth and inclusive development," Ramesh said.

"At the same time, it should help us in pursuing the agenda of poverty eradication and advancing domestic environmental policies," he added.