Bharat Rakshak

Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, the seniormost Indian negotiator and member of the PM's council on climate change told TOI: ``I am deeply concerned that the per capita equity approach, which provides the foundation for India's position on climate change negotiations, is being questioned at the level of minister of state (Jairam Ramesh).''

The disquiet over Saran's sudden exit is echoed by some sources in government who aver that the PM wanted to retain Saran and was quite willing to elevate him to MoS rank. But the former foreign secretary was clearly facing difficult odds as his approach was being challenged by Ramesh who was seen to be increasingly driving climate change policy.

Saran's exit is being seen as heralding a swift change in India's stance on climate change. A pointer to this is seen in Ramesh's decision to commission Arvind Subramanian, an economist working with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank, to undertake a study to define equity in the context of climate change

quote="Neshant"

I find this guy really suspicious. Almost everything he tries to push through is very much against the national interest. Either he's clueless or on the payroll of some foreign organization - CIA or one of their NGOs.

Why should India have any less right to per capita emissions than any other country. If anything India should have more rights since other countries are rich while India is poor.


Jairam Ramesh bid to rework stand on climate

Jairam suggests new climate team, drops critics from list

Neshant wrote:

Jairam suggests new climate team, drops critics from list

The guy is a nut.
....
If he isn't on the payroll of some foreign intelligence organization, I'd be shocked.

Neshant wrote:

Jairam suggests new climate team, drops critics from list

The guy is a nut. If he isn't on the payroll of some foreign intelligence organization, I'd be shocked.

In the internal struggle over the nation’s climate policy, India’s charismatic Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has triumphed and is pushing his country toward low-carbon policies both at home and internationally.
by isabel hilton

negi wrote:Jairam suggests new climate team, drops critics from list

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has agreed to formally associate itself with the climate accord struck in Copenhagen last year, one of the last major emitters to do so, the environment minister said in a statement on Tuesday.

"After careful consideration, India has agreed to such a listing," Jairam Ramesh told parliament, referring to India's decision to formally join the more than 100 countries that have choosen to associate themselves with the non-binding Accord.

"We believe that our decision to be listed reflects the role India played in giving shape to the Copenhagen Accord. This will strengthen our negotiating position on climate change."

India's decision leaves China, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, as the only nation among the "BASIC" group of big developing countries to hold off from associating with the political agreement.

The step is likely to be a small boost for the troubled Accord, which many greens say was a bare-minimum outcome from a summit originally intended to agree on the shape of a broader, tougher legally binding pact to fight climate change.
...

Gerard wrote:Many western nations have distorted IPCC reports: Jairam

Previous "studies on the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, including those quoted by the IPCC, did not consider the role of sediment in the growth and adjustment process of the country?s coast and rivers to the sea level rise," he told AFP.

Even if sea levels rise a maximum one metre in line with the IPCC's 2007 predictions, the new study indicates most of Bangladesh's coastline will remain intact, said Sarker.

"Based on the findings of the study, it appears that most of Bangladesh?s coastline, notably the Meghna estuary, which is one of the largest in the world, would rise at the same pace as the sea level growth," he said.

A University of Turku Department of Physics study shows that carbon dioxide has a significantly smaller impact on global warming than previously thought. Its results are based on spectrum analyses. According to research led by Professor Jyrki Kauppinen, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide accounts for only 5-10 per cent of the observed warming on Earth . "The climate is warming, yes, but not because of greenhouse gases," says Kauppinen.

According to him, projections made the UN climate panel, the International Panel on Climate Change, constitute a class-size error. The IPPC's calculated value is more than ten times larger than our calculated results, Kauppinen says. He intends to publish his results in the June issue of the magazine Nature.

The UN Climate Panel claims that global warming is almost entirely the result of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. [Unintelligible: Kauppinen, climate kestääkin much higher emissions than the IPCC reports have been made to understand.]

"I think it is such a blatant falsification," Kauppinen says.

These environmental groups, while spanning quite a large spectrum, tend to demonstrate an affinity with the pro-rural socialist left. The report describes climate change as not just a threat but also an "opportunity" to re-think the entire global system. It challenges western notions of development and growth and, most starkly, concludes that "mere reform within the current global economic system will be insufficient" to tackle poverty in a carbon constrained future. Indeed, members of these groups often seem to embrace rural village life as representing a pre-industrial idyll which should be preserved.

Such romantic ideology therefore seeks to largely maintain the status quo – where the African poor are kept "traditional" and "indigenous". It's hard to disagree with Lord May, former president of the Royal Society in his observation that "much of the green movement isn't a green movement at all, it's political".

With poverty redefined in terms of the environment and infused with pro-rural socialism, large-scale projects to industrialise or modernise are not the priority – indeed, western-style development and modernisation are seen as part of the problem. Instead there is a self-limiting bottom-up approach which subsidises underdevelopment not as a transitionary phase but as an end goal.

What really went on at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen? Secret recordings obtained by SPIEGEL reveal how China and India prevented an agreement on tackling climate change at the crucial meeting. The powerless Europeans were forced to look on as the agreement failed.
At some point his patience was at an end, as depleted as the oxygen in the small conference room. He could no longer keep still, not even for a second.


The words suddenly burst out of French President Nicolas Sarkozy: "I say this with all due respect and in all friendship." Everyone in the room, which included two dozen heads of state, knew that he meant precisely the opposite of what he was saying. "With all due respect to China," the French president continued, speaking in French.

As if viewed through a magnifying glass, the contours of a new political world order become visible, one shaped by the new self-confidence of the Asians and the powerlessness of the West.

abhishek_sharma wrote:India bailed out China from US-EU ambush at Copenhagen: Ramesh

JE Menon wrote:Thanks csharma,

Guys, read the whole thing, especially the clarification at the end. Sweet. I'm quite certain the wording of the clarification originated outside the German chancellery. Read it carefully and you will know why.

When the Indian leader absolutely refused to accept any concrete targets in the Copenhagen Protocol, Merkel dropped the diplomatic etiquette. "But then you do not want legally binding!" she yelled at the leader of a nation with over a billion people. Singh literally shouted back: "That's not fair!" His Chinese colleague, Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei, added calmly and in polished English: "The current formulation would not be agreed."

“There is a large security establishment which is uncomfortable even with the Copenhagen spirit,” he told Indian journalists. “They keep asking me ‘Why are you collaborating with China on climate change?' After all, China is the world's largest emitter, with 23 per cent of the world's emissions, and we [account for] less than 5 per cent. They are asking, why should we collaborate with these guys?”

The Minister, however, suggested there was a “strategic” interest for India in taking forward climate cooperation with China.

He pointed to greater co-operation from China in sharing information on dam projects on the Brahmaputra, which had triggered concerns in India. The muted response from the Chinese government to the reported telecom ban also hinted at a better political atmosphere, he noted.

“The Prime Minister is totally gung-ho on [the Copenhagen spirit],” Mr. Ramesh said. “There is no doubt on it ... The NSA [National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon] is fully backing it. The MEA is backing it. The people with the questions are the Home Ministry and the security establishment.”

http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/09/stories ... 120100.htm

Gerard wrote:Merkel Abandons Aim of Binding Climate Agreement

When the Indian leader absolutely refused to accept any concrete targets in the Copenhagen Protocol, Merkel dropped the diplomatic etiquette. "But then you do not want legally binding!" she yelled at the leader of a nation with over a billion people. Singh literally shouted back: "That's not fair!" His Chinese colleague, Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei, added calmly and in polished English: "The current formulation would not be agreed."

JE Menon wrote:Anmol, the words "low-ranking" used in the clarification suggests very strongly that the text of the clarification or parts of it came from the Indian embassy or other competent authority.

JE Menon wrote:I've sent them a stiff letter pointing out the error of portraying Prime Minister Singh in such a ludicrous light, and further pointing out their own apologetic note correcting this error on another part of their site. Let's see if they publish it.

The blue turban of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was bobbing over the tops of a few hastily assembled potted plants.

JE Menon wrote:I'm not sure why you do, unless you attach a certain weight to their perception of you or yours.

India's annual greenhouse gas emissions increased by nearly 60% between 1994 and 2007, a government study says.

The government says that emissions grew from 1.2bn tonnes in 1994 to 1.9bn tonnes in 2007, confirming India as one of the world's biggest emitters. India argues its per capita emissions are far lower than that of most industrialised nations. The jump is attributed to the growth of industries such as cement production, electricity and transport. Over the last 15 years India's economy has developed at breakneck pace. Correspondents say that developing nations such as India and China are under pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But at climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, India did not sign up to binding targets. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh maintains that India's emissions are not comparable with those of the US and China. "The emissions of the United States and China are almost four times that of India in 2007," he told the AFP news agency

Jairam Ramesh not out of the woods yet : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indi ... 931938.cms

.....

But he is yet to get an audience with Sonia.

The uncertainty over his status indicates the minister's letter to Sonia explaining his remarks in China has not convinced her. The Congress chief is understood to be bothered about the minister's conduct and this has led to the view that the ides of June might prove decisive in Ramesh's career.

The chancellor was deeply disturbed by the Chinese and Indian show of power

Pranav wrote:Jairam has created problems for powerful western interests by proposing India-China cooperation on the global warming fraud, and also by creating obstacles for introduction of GM frankenfoods.

The talk is that the Congress will not renew his Rajya Sabha membership.

Jairam Ramesh not out of the woods yet : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indi ... 931938.cms

.....

But he is yet to get an audience with Sonia.

The uncertainty over his status indicates the minister's letter to Sonia explaining his remarks in China has not convinced her. The Congress chief is understood to be bothered about the minister's conduct and this has led to the view that the ides of June might prove decisive in Ramesh's career.

Raghuram Rajan, honorary economic advisor to the Prime Minister, today said India should not follow the US “blindly” on environment.
“Environment protection is important, but the question is whether you can stretch it beyond a point. At this stage of its development, India needs factories as well,” he said at a session on ‘How will India grow faster than China?”

Referring to Rajan’s concerns on pushing the environment agenda too far, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said opinions like these are welcome as India is seeing the early stages of debate on sustainability issues. On one side are non-government organisations (NGOs) who think environment protection is a costless exercise, and on the other is the opinion whether India is being over-protective and pushing the environment agenda too far. “You can expect transparent policies after deliberations,” he said.