Ramesh `built bridges` in Cancun climate talks

Cancun, Dec 12 (PTI) Indian Environment Minister
Jairam Ramesh has been praised for his role as a
bridge-builder on contentious issues at the UN climate
conference here which ended with a deal to curb global
warming, including a USD 100 billion fund to help developing
countries.
The two-week long conference closed on Friday with
“Cancun Agreement,” which marked some progress for finance,
technology, adaptation and transparency, but isn’t viewed as a
decisive boost for combating climate change.
"The minister (Ramesh) has been instrumental in
bridging gaps,” Mohamed Aslam, the environment minister of
Maldives, told PTI.
"He has been reaching out to the AOSIS nations as well
as to developed countries," he said.
Aslam was referring to the Alliance of Small Island
States, which are most vulnerable to climate change and want
developed countries as well as emerging economies, especially
China and India, to take on hefty legally binding emission
cuts.
The UN climate conference on early hours of Saturday
reached a "compromise" to set up a USD 100 billion 'Green
Fund' to fight global warming, a decision India described as
an "important step forward", but there was no agreement on
extending the landmark Kyoto Protocol on emissions cuts beyond
2012.
"We are very happy with the text," Ramesh earlier
said, noting that the major emerging economies -- Brazil,
South Africa, India and China (BASIC) -- had welcomed the
decision.
"Cancun represents an important step forward," he
said.
Progress at the conference includes a broad agreement
on technology-sharing mechanism that will ensure that poor and
vulnerable countries are able to access green technologies
easily and in a cost-effective manner.
A 'Green Fund' has been set up that is expected to
mobilise USD 100 billion per year by 2020, which will be given
to developing countries for adaptation and mitigation
purposes.
The nitty-gritty of the technology and finance
mechanism still needs to be worked out. Bolivia was the sole
country to oppose the decision in Cancun, but was eventually
overruled.
According to Ramesh, many of India's contributions had
been incorporated in the text, including the International
Consultation and Analysis, which is a transparency mechanism
to review whether developing countries are carrying out their
domestic mitigation actions.