A faceoff has developed between low-key environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and Planning Commission deputy commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Sources in the environment ministry point out that Ms Natarajan has dashed off a letter to Dr Ahluwalia asking the Planning Commission to rewrite the entire chapter on climate change in the 12th Five-Year Plan. It has provided its own version of the chapter which it insists must be included in the final draft.
The draft document prepared by the Planning Commission has diluted India’s long-standing position on climate change, asking India to accept “cap-and-trade” in emissions along the stance being promoted by industrialised nations for the last two decades.
India has strongly opposed legally binding emission cuts and has stressed on equity forming the central pillar around which its response to the problem of climate change is based.
The draft document had also pushed for a mitigation rather than the adaptation-based approach even though the latter is India’s known position in international negotiations.