The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must remain central to global co-operation on climate issues, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday. Singh, delivering the inaugural address at the annual Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, said he was disappointed "with the limited achievements of the discussions that took place in Copenhagen," which did not produce a "negotiated set of legal obligations."
He said that India "fully support[s]" the voluntary accord that was signed at the December summit, but that this should not be considered a "substitute" for long-term, binding agreements within the UNFCCC. He said that negotiations on the two-track process, which would set different targets for developed and developing countries, should "recommence in right earnest."
In the absence of binding commitments at Copenhagen, five participating countries signed an accord agreeing on voluntary emissions targets for developed countries, and action targets for developing ones. The accord was hammered out at the last minute between the US, Brazil, China, India and South Africa.
The accord aims to keep the global rise in temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius by 2020. Industrialised nations can list greenhouse-gas reduction targets in an annex, while developing nations can state the actions they intend to take to limit emissions.
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