‘In Rio, victory on principles, standstill on practice’

Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, smiles when she says India’s known stands on climate change mitigation have been accepted.

But the smile is replaced by a frown when someone asks if the developed nations have pledged any money to help the developing countries. No, she says, adding valiantly that India does not want to commodify the environment.

“We remain disappointed with the weak political will in developed countries to provide enhanced means of implementation to developing countries, we are glad that we have agreed to set up two important mechanisms — one for Technology Transfer and another for Finance. Both were Indian proposals.”

So that’s the story from Rio — victory on principles and standstill on practice.

Unfazed, Ms Natarajan, who was briefing journalists accompanying the Prime Minister to the Rio+20 Conference, says India is now accepted as the leader of the developing countries.

Many things left out

But the NGOs and the European Union have been loudly grumbling that it has all been a gigantic waste of time. The draft of the declaration has left out too many things that were dear to them.

Later, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ranjan Mathai, added that India and China worked very closely on most issues during the negotiations.

But it is when it came to the bilateral meeting the Prime Minister had with the Chinese Premier, Mr Wen Jiabao, that his face lit up.

Things seem to have gone swimmingly because the meeting seems to have gone swimmingly. It lasted 10 minutes more than scheduled. As an aside, a PMO official whispers that Dr Singh was in a relaxed and expansive mood. Amongst the other issues that the two discussed was Chinese investment in India, specifically in infrastructure. The Chinese Premier, said Mr Mathai, responded positively.

For greater transparency

Dr Singh also raised India’s trade deficit with China. The Chinese Premier said he understood and would send a team to India to see what could be done. On the transnational rivers issue, Dr Singh asked for greater information-sharing and transparency.

The Chinese Premier is believed to have indicated that it was a good idea.

In the end, the six-day trip by Dr Singh — two at the G-20, two at the Rio+20, 45,000 miles and 50 hours in the air — has perhaps yielded just that — a lot of hot air.

Euro Zone, said an official, would have been saved even without the G-20. And Rio+20, Ms Natarajan’s warm glow notwithstanding, has left the world exactly where it was before.

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