Copenhagen: As prospects of a deal to combat global warming appeared bleak at marathon talks in Copenhagen, India on Thursday attacked host Denmark for keeping the political statement under wraps even as the US accused emerging nations of "backing away" from scrutiny of their climate actions.
Hours before the key segment of the 12-day climate talks, to be attended by over 100 world leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama, opened in Copenhangen, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said "the continued reluctance of the Danes to reveal the political outcome is most baffling."
"We don't know the content of the text," he said. "All along the objective was to delay, delay and delay. What has happened in this COP (Conference of Parties) is unprecedented in global negotiations and it really is most disappointing for India and other countries. It is wrong, it is mischievous... We want to be constructive."
India said a handful of developed countries led by Britain were working out a surprise political text.
No developing country was involved in drafting of the text and there is great concern that it will be sprung up as a surprise at the heads of state level talks where it is difficult to counter and oppose the contents, Ramesh said.
Seeking to give an impetus to the faltering talks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US will mobilize $100 billion yearly till 2020 if developing countries agree to "transparency" in national commitments as she accused the emerging economies of "backing away" from making their climate actions open to scrutiny.
Clinton attacked the emerging nations for reneging on promises to make national mitigation targets open to scrutiny.
"There have been occasions in this past year when all the major economies have committed to transparency," she said.
"Now that we are trying to define what transparency means and how we would both implement it and observe it, there's a backing away from transparency and that to us is something that undermines the whole effort we're engaged in," she said.
Noting that the "difficult" climate talks had reached a "critical juncture," she told a press conference that time was running out to reach a "common ground" and take a "historic step that we can all be proud of".
Most of the officials are still pinning their hopes on a last minute breakthrough. The discussion on the two negotiated texts resumed last evening after a 12-hour delay.
"I am still hopeful that during the course of the day we might be able to salvage something," Ramesh told reporters, but also expressed concern that the developed countries would try to block and slow down the process as much as possible.
If the talks fail, it would be because the developed countries have not fulfilled their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, he said. "The developing countries led by India, China, Brazil, South Africa, the African group and the G-77 have worked very hard to bring the negotiations back on track. The blame should not be laid on our doorstep."
"The blame is fairly and squarely with the developed countries and I'm very happy that one of the positive outcomes of Copenhagen is the cementing of ties between India and China," he said.
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