‘No restrictive trade practices’
India is going to the Rio+Earth Summit determined to ensure the conference does not result in restrictive trade practices in the name of the green economy.
In a hurriedly convened media briefing on the eve of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s departure to Mexico and the Earth Summit, India’s chief negotiator at Rio, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan pointed out that the G 77 nations and China, along with India, are expected to negotiate together to ensure that sustainable development goals (SDGs) remain voluntary and not binding as is being insisted upon by the industrialised countries.
“We do not want trade restrictive measures or protectionism in the name of green growth,” she said.
Elaborating on this, she said that India was of the view that green economy as a concept will succeed only if it enhances the ability of developing nation’s to address poverty eradication, provide adequate policy space for national priorities and also ensure that structural changes do not result in green protectionism by the developed world.
Describing the run up to the summit, the minister emphasised that a Zero Draft Text was being negotiated for some time though she failed to elaborate on just how both the contentious this draft had become.
The minister reiterated that CBDR remained one of the goal posts for the Rio meet. Though she did concede that though G 77 nation and China “were not in agreement on all issues, we nevertheless have a shared vision of development”. India was already committed to a low carbon growth but the industrialised nations would have to provide financial and technological support to assist developing nations make a transition to the green economy.
The Rio Summit, starting June 29, is being held 20 years after the first Earth Summit. A key meeting of world leaders, it is hoped it will help rally them into preparing a common environmental blueprint.
Meanwhile, in India, private equity investors are lining up to invest `25,000-30,000 crores in green energy projects. The states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka are close to finalising norms to promote green energy ventures.
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