Singh-Merkel formula can unlock climate negotiations:Ramesh

A formula converging the views of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has the potential to contribute to breaking the logjam in international climate negotiations, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said here today.

He, however, added a caveat saying that the countries will converge to per capita emission levels at different levels of per capita income and this will make a difference to living standards.

Addressing the special session of Finnish Parliament here on "Making Sustainable Prosperity Happen Now", Ramesh recalled the addresses of Singh and Merkel on two separate occasions on the Green House Gas emission and said the 'Singh-Merkel Convergence Formula' or some variant of it "requires some further thought".

In his address at the G8 plus 5 meeting at Heiligendamm, Germany in July 2007, Singh had said, "We are determined that India's per-capita GHG emissions are not going to exceed those of developed countries even while pursuing policies of development and economic growth".

Later that year, Merkel called for an approach based on "per-capita emissions increasingly converging worldwide at a level compatible with our shared climate protection goal", arguing that, "such a process of long-term convergence offers all countries scope to develop.

It does not overburden any, yet ensures that the necessary action on the climate issue is taken. By this means the principle that countries have shared but differing responsibilities can be translated into political and economic reality." Ramesh said this formulation, which he calls the "Singh-Merkel Convergence Formula", or some variant of it, has the potential to contribute significantly to breaking the logjam in climate negotiations but with a caveat.

"The caveat is this: countries will converge to per capita emission levels at different levels of per capita income and this will make a difference to living standards. This requires some further thought," he said.