Copenhagen: Manmohan's list of demands

On the agenda at the Copenhagen Convention on Climate Change this week are the following: greenhouse gases, devastating deforestation, fickle financing, and mystifying mitigation measures. But it seems the conference is beset by more than just alliterative argot. The grand old battle betwen the rich and the poor is on again. In the light of a leaked copy of the supposed draft deal which has suddenly emerged, suggesting that rich nations will be free to take more environmental liberties than poor, our Prime Minister and the US president will get together in the Danish capital this week to pick up on a conversation that ostensibly has our future dangling in the balance.

The Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (our little coPUNfcc) will feature competing interests, protests, negotiations and furor galore. A collectively written editorial which appeared in 56 newspapers across 45 countries on the opening day of the summit pointed out, “At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world.”

India and the US are symbolic of the hope for such unprecedented cooperation.

While 15,000 delegates and 100 world leaders are attending, Manmohan Singh and Barack Obama’s appearance in the final days will undoubtedly be the highlight of the show. India’s initial pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a quantifiable 20 to 25 percent by the year 2020 has been met with global approval but local dismay -- did we just give away something for nothing?

Our canny head of state, however, recognizes the bargaining potential he has garnered. And he intends to leverage it toward an international, substantive and operationally binding deal at Copenhagen. While Mr. Singh has publicly affirmed the need for an ambitious outcome to the summit for climate change, he plans to haggle hard for concessions too.

He has emphasized the necessity to set global goals for emission reductions, but with appropriate mitigations for developing nations. There is a concomitant drive to develop and transfer sustainable, clean energy technologies. Of course, all this involves major public financing, with the brunt of the burden borne by richer countries.

India’s stance: we didn’t start the fire, but we’re trying to fight it.

A press release from the Prime Minister’s Office preceding his Copenhagen visit unobtrusively slips in the mantra that India Shining citizens have long been chanting. To be appended to every point he makes is the caveat: without compromising the legitimate development aspirations of developing countries. India is glad to be part of the solution, but doesn’t want to pass up on its own industrial revolution.