India ‘cautiously optimistic’ about Durban outcome
December 8th, 2011 - 9:18 pm ICT by IANSDurban, Dec 8 (IANS) Indian Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan Thursday said she is “cautiously optimistic” about UN climate talks arriving at a conclusion as the ambition levels of developed countries is “quite high”.
With a day left for the two-week long 17th Conference of Parties (CoP) to conclude, Natarajan said the stakes to make Durban a success have gone up but the last point of convergence between the rich and poor countries cannot be seen as of now.
“I am cautiously optimistic as there is an uphill task and the ambition levels of the European Union (EU) and the US are quite high. We have strained every nerve and are willing to walk further but their last point of convergence can not be seen at the end of the tunnel,” she told reporters here.
She said the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries held several rounds of talks with the EU and US and many other groups of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and small island states, “but the discussions have not reached any conclusion,” she said.
Natarajan said she has postponed her return from Saturday to Sunday as there is less hope to reach a conclusion Friday and the talks are expected to continue Saturday.
“The EU has been very keen on the establishment of its proposed roadmap but we need to know what is the content of it and we also want some time and as we want to see the report of the fifth review of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due in 2014,” she said.
(Richa Sharma can be reached at richa.s@ians.in)
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Tags: ambition, climate change, climate talks, conclusion, convergence, cop, environment minister, european union, indian environment, island states, jayanthi, jayanthi natarajan, least developed countries, nerve, rich and poor countries, richa sharma, roadmap, saturday to sunday, south africa, uphill task