India will 'Renegotiate' emission reduction target

India on Tuesday said that it would not "negotiate or renegotiate" the UN Framework on Climate Change but will "renegotiate" the emission reduction target which the developed nations have to take at the Copenhagen meet slated in December.

"We are not negotiating or renegotiating the UN Framework on Climate Change as expected by the industrialised nations.

We are renegotiating the greenhouse gas emission reduction target which the developed countries have to take and we are in discussion with other nations like Brazil, China and G-77 on the issue," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference.

He maintained that there was no way India would take any legally binding emission reduction target "as by doing so we will be jeopardising our energy consumption target, transportation expansion and most importantly our agricultural and power production which is needed for poverty elimination."

Blaming the developed countries in failing to meet their targets, the minister pointed out that they took the responsibility of reducing their emissions by 5 percent by the year 2020 as compared to 1990.

"But in actual there is almost 10 percent increase in the GHG emissions ... therefore the target which has been set has not been met, what they had legally entered into as part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and later Kyoto Protocol."