India says it cannot accept a cap on development

India said on Wednesday it will not accept any cap on its development in the name of climate change, asserting that any negotiation on climate change should take into account the overriding developmental objectives of the developing countries.

Briefing reporters at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of 17 major economies on climate change and energy, prime minister's special envoy Shyam Saran said there has to be a balance between historical responsibility and current emissions.

"Focus only on current emissions is not going to give you an equitable result," he said, adding developed countries simply can't absolve of their historic responsibilities and talk about current emissions only.

"We have been saying that the developed countries, sooner rather than later should indicate what the emissions targets they are willing to take are? Whatever they had agreed to take on in the Kyoto protocol 1997, only few countries are going to be able to meet those targets," he said.

"We (developing countries) say, 1990 should be the base year, because that is what is being recognized by the UNFCC," he said. Referring to the often made remarks by the developed countries urging the world for an extraordinary response to the increasing danger of climate change, Saran said:

"Extraordinary response would mean that you as developed countries must take much more significant reduction target than you have been willing to do in the past."

Saran said there are countries, which focus mainly on current emissions and are not giving the kind of attention that they should, to this aspect of historical responsibility.

In the negotiations that are taking place at the multilateral forum, he said India's approach is based on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Bali Action Plan, both of which are a consensus document.

"We are saying that its provisions should be the basis for what we are trying to achieve at Copenhagen. The differences are arising because there are tendencies to move away from these principles and provisions and that is what causes difficulties," he argued.

Stressing that historical responsibilities have to be recognised in any negotiations, Saran said: "If you are going to focus your attention only on current emissions then you get a different result, but if you take into account not only current emissions but also historical emissions then the picture becomes very different.

"So the approach is yes current emissions have to be taken into account, but an equitable outcome has to take into account the responsibility of the developed industrialised world for the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere."