Doha climate talks: Jayanthi Natarajan not to lead climate negotiations

DOHA: Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan would be unable to lead the climate negotiations at Doha when the high-level segment launches on December 5. The voting in Rajya Sabha on the FDI in the retail sector at the same time is expected to keep her away from the talks.

In her absence the environment ministry, special secretary M Mehrishi is likely to lead the Indian delegation through the ministerial rounds. She would be aided by joint secretary R R Rashmi also from the environment ministry, a senior negotiator at the climate talks.

He is accompanied by T S Tirumurti, joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs.

The talks though slated to end on December 7 but history suggests that they could grind on for days after.

Natarajan had made her mark at the talks in 2011 at Durban when her forceful interventions ensured that equity and other red-lines remained safeguarded even as India tried to recover from two years previous to that when it had acted with a controversial bit of flexibility.

Though the negotiating team was substantially pruned this time, a clear mandate from the cabinet is expected to help the team guide to lead through the talks where the risk of some of its agenda elements falling off the table has arisen over the last week of negotiations.