No final pronouncement at Durban expected: Ramesh

India is not expecting any 'concrete' or 'final pronouncement' at the climate conclave in Durban later this year on four key issues, including one pertaining to emission cuts.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, however, said it does not mean that 'we should not negotiate, we should not discuss or exchange views' on the crucial climate change issues.

"....One should understand it very clearly that we are not going to get a final pronouncement on these issues. They will still be on agenda.

"They will be discussed and as I said Durban will not have a final say....," the minister said while describing the journey from Cancun summit to Durban conference.

Maintaining that he was approaching the Durban Climate Conference from a realistic point of view, he said, "If we approach it from a sense of exaggeration we will be hit by another disappointment.

"I don't see any agreement on second commitment period for Kyoto Protocol, legally binding agreement on emission cuts, controversy over 2 degrees Celsius versus 1.5 degrees Celsius global goal for temperature rise and peak year for emission cuts."

The minister was addressing a session of Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2011.

It was time for everyone to stop interpreting Cancun and start implementing it, he added.

He said unlike the Cancun conference, where the nations were meeting in the backdrop of disappointment of the Copenhagen climate meeting, this time they were meeting in the backdrop of 'two huge accomplishments' achieved at the conference at Nagoya last October.

"If you ask me from the environmental point of view, Cancun was a disappointment but from the political point of view it was an advancement," Ramesh said.

"Cancun should be seen as a template of actionable point that will end at Durban," he said.

Reiterating the statement he had made at Cancun last year in which he accepted Bolivia's criticism on the draft accepted by the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) countries, Ramesh said his 'heart' is with Bolivia, but his 'head' is not.

The BASIC nations had said at Cancun that they were 'very happy' with the two draft texts prepared by climate negotiators from almost 200 nations on the Kyoto protocol and a long-term action to combat climate change.

Bolivia, however, had criticised the draft as too weak and accused other nations of trying to isolate it at the UN climate change conference.

Image: Jairam Ramesh