Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) India should push for a “fairer and juster” global climate deal, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said Thursday while stressing that the country should accept some mandatory obligations although it is a minor polluter.
“India needs to push for a fairer and juster deal on climate change,” Sen said at a conclave organised by the Aspen Institute India, a think tank.

“It’s a minor polluter. But it can’t go on saying it will not accept mandatory obligations if they are just and fair,” Sen, professor of history and economics at Harvard University, said.

“We can’t say we won’t accept anything. Otherwise, there will be no deal,” he stressed.

Making a case for “global climate justice”, the author of “The Idea of Justice” pointed out that the US was not prepared to accept a deal without commitments from India and China.

Sen’s remarks come at a time when India is under increasing pressure from developed countries to accept verifiable carbon reduction commitments.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for Copenhagen Thursday on a two-day visit. He is expected to push for “a comprehensive, equitable and balanced outcome” at the 192-nation UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen.

Laying down red lines over “non-negotiable issues” over which India will not budge despite pressure from developed countries, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had said Wednesday that India will not accept legally binding emission cuts, a peaking period for emissions and will not allow domestic climate change actions financed by domestic funds to be brought under international scrutiny.