India to take leadership role in run-up to Cancun: Ramesh

India would take the leadership role in the next six months in the run-up to Cancun, environment minister, Jairam Ramesh said today.
 
"In the next six months in the run-up to Cancun, India will take the leadership role on the issue of a global carbon budget," Ramesh said in Mumbai today, referring to an overall limit on emissions of greenhouse gases.

Ramesh was addressing a conference on 'Global Carbon Budgets and Equity in Climate Change' in Mumbai.

In his keynote address, Ramesh stressed that the global climate accord must include the principle of a climate budget.

According to scientists, world leaders should devise a treaty aimed at limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius since the 1800s, protecting tropical forests and creating a "revolution" in energy infrastructure. They said last month that a carbon budget was also needed to measure greenhouse gas output in 2020 and 2050. They added that the aim of the developed countries should be to cut emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020.

Ramesh said there should be emissions entitlements for countries within a climate budget. The climate budget should be determined equitably factoring in what countries have historically already released into the atmosphere.

"India cannot and will not accept any international agreement in which equity is absent, in which equitable access to global atmospheric space is absent," he said.