The search for a global climate treaty - Climate Change: The Facts - page 139

the viability and relevance of the talks. Unlike Copenhagen, there was an air of harmony
at the closing plenary. Speaking for the Africa Group, Algeria said the COP had restored
confidence in the process, observing that 'tonight God has been very close to Mexico.' 10
Earlier in the COP, many parties expressed support for a 'legally binding outcome' and the
EU reiterated its willingness to sign up to a second commitment period in the context of a
global, legally binding outcome. 11
Apparent movement by India, China's core ally at Copenhagen, toward the EU's
positioncreated someexcitement atCancúnandwasseverely criticised backhome.Jairam
Ramesh, India's environment minister, explained: 'We have to accept the changing global
reality. G-77 [bloc of developing countries] has been vocally calling for [a] legally binding
instrument.' At the same time Ramesh denied that this shift was going against India's
fundamental position.
The cabinet has given me a mandate not to agree any legally binding agreement at this stage … What I said was to
keep India's options open in global climate negotiations. I don't want to put India in a corner. We should have room for
manoeuvre for the next two years … I admit our position has evolved, keeping in mind India's changing global role. 12
However Indian premier Manmohan Singh asked critics 'not to read too much into the
statement.' 13 Green growth must have been far from Singh's mind. A month earlier, Singh
had told India's energy firms to scour the globe for fossil fuel supplies as India's demand
for them was set to increase by 40 per cent. 'Hydrocarbons will continue to be our major
source of energy for quite some time', Singh said. 14 India had a different negotiator at the
2011 COP in Durban.
The Europeans arrived in Durban brandishing their big bazooka. Melodrama was the
order of the day. The chief G-77 negotiator suggested Durban could be the place where the
Kyoto Protocol dies—or 'be put on a respirator, just so it will not die here, so it will die
somewhere else.' Host president, South Africa's Jacob Zuma and one of the BASIC four
alongside China, India and Brazil, added his voice to the impending sense of crisis. 'We
go to Durban with no illusion at all that it will be a walk in the park', Zuma said. 'For
most people in the developing countries and Africa, climate change is a matter of life and
death.' 15
He was joined by Ban Ki-moon who pleaded with developed countries to spare the
Kyoto Protocol. 'It would be difficult to overstate the gravity of this moment', Ban said at
the start of a four-day meeting of environment ministers. 'Without exaggeration, we can
say: the future of our planet is at stake.' 16 The following day, Canada gave its answer.
'Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past', environment minister Peter Kent told the conference. 17