Indian PM to attend Copenhagen summit
05 Dec 2009
New Delhi: Probably taking his cue from US president Barack Obama, whose staff let it be known Friday that he has re-positioned his attendance at the Copenhagen summit, from the start of the summit to the end when decisions are expected to be taken, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's office has let it be known that now he too would attend the summit. He will likely mark his attendance on 17 December.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 will run through 7-18 December.
Singh was not scheduled to attend the summit and minister of state for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, and the prime minister's special envoy for climate change, Shyam Saran, were supposed to shoulder responsibilities.
Obama's shift of appointments has come in response to a request by French president Nicolas Sarkozy that he make such an adjustment as important decisions were expected to be taken up at the end of the summit, rather than the beginning.
The announcement comes even as India has made its position on emission cuts known. It has announced that it would consider an emission cut of 20 to 25% by 2020, and will not accept dictats from developed nations.
Elaborating the government's position in parliament, earlier this week, Ramesh said: "India will never accept a legally binding emission reduction agreement."
