Dear Friends and Representatives of the Media,

I welcome this opportunity to meet the distinguished members of the media and to share with you our assessment of the current state of play in the ongoing negotiations leading up to Copenhagen. This will be a brief opening statement so that we have more time for interaction and give you an opportunity to pose any question that you may have.

The talks being held at Bangkok in the two tracks are critical to the success of the Climate Conference that will be held in Copenhagen later this year. While there is progress in the consolidation of texts in the Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action, further work will be necessary on substantive issues. We have achieved greater congruence of views on adaptation. On technology, we have been able to advance towards a shared perspective, though as yet in broad terms, on the institutional framework and the nature of activities that we need to pursue, including capacity building. These are encouraging milestones as we head towards Copenhagen.

However, the picture in the second track, the Kyoto Protocol track, has gone in the reverse direction. It had been our expectation that our developed country partners will announce deep and ambitious emission reduction targets in the course of these talks in the run up to Copenhagen. We have, however, been dismayed by the lack of willingness on the part of several of our developed country partners to move in this direction. Developed country parties to the Kyoto Protocol should have announced their respective individual and overall emission reduction targets for the second commitment period, commencing in 2013. Those who had not joined the Kyoto Protocol should have announced comparable commitments, as had been agreed upon in the Bali Action Plan.

It is a matter of regret that several Annex I countries are unlikely to meet their emission reduction obligations set for the first commitment period. And it is a matter of even deeper concern that there has been no progress on achieving the key objectives of our negotiations, that is the announcement of the second commitment period targets, which must be of a scale equal to the challenge we face from global climate change. Except for a few countries like Japan and Norway, the individual targets that have been indicated so far fall far short of what is required, and now there are inadmissible attempts to abandon the Protocol altogether. We hope that by the time we return to Barcelona in November, this unsatisfactory state of affairs will change. A Copenhagen outcome without clarity on this important issue is unlikely.

At this penultimate stage of our negotiations, new concepts and instruments have been proposed, which taken together, would mean firstly, the setting aside of the Kyoto Protocol altogether; secondly, the diminishing rather than enhancing of the level of commitment as well as ambition with regard to mitigation; and thirdly, the rewriting of key principles and provisions of the UNFCCC itself. As you would appreciate, this is not the mandate we agreed upon by consensus at Bali.

India takes the challenge of climate change seriously and has undertaken a number of significant policy measures to address both mitigation and adaptation. As part of our National Action Plan on Climate Change, we have recently finalised two of the eight National Missions included in the Plan. These are the National Solar Mission and the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency. Both have ambitious goals and will constitute an important contribution to the global action on climate change. Other Missions will be finalized shortly in the meetings of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. India’s Minister of Environment and Forest, Mr. Jairam Ramesh has, in recent statements, indicated the significant scale of ambition these Missions represent. He has also conveyed flexibility in the manner in which information on these climate actions could be made available to the international community within the framework of the UNFCCC.

I would like to inform you that on October 22 and 23, 2009, India is convening a Conference on Technology and Development related to climate change in New Delhi in collaboration with the United Nations. A large number of Ministers and senior officers from across the world will be attending the conference, which will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India. The President of the Maldives will be the Chief Guest and will deliver the keynote address. We welcome you to this important event and this is our hope that the conference will make a contribution to advancing our work on the road to Copenhagen.

India, as always, will continue to play a positive and constructive role in the on-going negotiations and will make every effort possible to ensure a successful outcome at Copenhagen.

I will be happy to take any questions you may have.

New Delhi
October 09, 2009