India lodges complaint as climate text favours rich

NEW DELHI: Taking a privately expressed grouse to the formal level, the Indian climate team on Tuesday officially complained on the first day of the negotiations at Bonn that the negotiating text included elements that would alter the character and content of the international compact ��� the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Though couched politely in the genteel language of international diplomatic engagement, the statement from the Indian team stopped short of being accusatory in nature. It insinuated that the authors of the negotiating text (a base for all future negotiations) had bent the draft in favour of countries that want the key parts of the convention rewritten.

The Indian government also detected a move in another subsidiary body of the convention to twist the convention and put India on the mat.

India, like other non-industrialised countries, is expected to periodically communicate its actions to prevent climate change and the possible threats from the inevitable changes to the UNFCCC. But Indian officials
saw a move in time to make the information sharing ��� known as the national communication ��� a mandatory exercise and allow other countries to scrutinize and evaluate it.

With the UN negotiations broken down into several subsidiary body meetings, the Indian delegation has been stretched to look out for convention-bending statements or tactics by industrialized countries.