New Delhi ,Feb. 21: Two days after Mr Shyam Saran announced his resignation as the Prime Minister’s special envoy on climate change, one of the country’s top climate change negotiators, retired diplomat Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, said he was dissociating himself from all future climate change negotiations.Mr Dasgupta, a former ambassador to China and the European Union and a key member of the Indian team at last December’s Copenhagen summit, is considered to be close to Mr Saran.
Mr Dasgupta indicated that he was driven to take this step following serious differences with minister of state for environment Jairam Ramesh, who in his view was jeopardising India’s long-standing position on climate change.In an email to this newspaper, Mr Dasgupta said: “I am deeply concerned that the per-capita equity approach, which provides the basic foundation for India’s position in climate change negotiations, is being questioned at the level of minister of state. We have always maintained that every human being has an equal right to the global atmospheric resource. Equity demands that the per capita emissions of developed countries should be sharply reduced, so that they converge over a period of time with rising per capita emissions of developing countries. Accordingly, the PM has offered that our per capita emissions will not at any stage exceed those of developed countries. Questioning this basic principle seriously weakens our negotiating position. If the per capita principle is sacrificed, it would amount to ‘decapitating’ equity!”What appears to have seriously alarmed Mr Dasgupta is a recent comment by Mr Ramesh that “per capita ... is one of our options”, and that “India would hold an international workshop to discuss other options in order to come up with a new formula.”Mr Dasgupta said: “I find it shocking that Ramesh has asked US-based Arvind Subramanian to consider various options available to us so that we will have the new formula ready by the time the Bonn round of talks start in May this year. These options are not being discussed by Indian climatechange experts, but are being referred to an international group. Is this how foreign policy on such a crucial issue is being addressed?” When asked, however, he refused to say if in his opinion this was being done due to pressure from the United States.
Rashme Sehgal