India against 'uncooked papers' at Copenhagen

Amid concerns that many countries may be compelled to sign an incomplete political document to get a deal at the UN climate meet, top Indian official Shyam Saran on Wednesday said no 'uncooked' paper should be presented at its final leg as he left to brief the leadership back home.

"All the G77 and China members have made it very clear that they are not envisaging that there could be any kind of uncooked paper which would go up to the heads of state and the government," Saran told journalists before leaving for New Delhi to brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whom he will return with for the end of the conference.

The G-77 group of countries and China earlier in the day slammed a Danish draft proposal for an agreement on climate change, saying it "threatens the success" of the summit.

The developing countries are concerned as the text of the controversial draft by the host country blurs the balance of obligations between developed and developing countries on issues like mitigation, protection of IPR and financing.

"Whatever has to be adopted by the heads of state and government should have been finalised before the 18th. So this is a very strong message that has been conveyed," Saran said.

There has been talk that if a legally binding agreement cannot be reached, a political document could be signed by the leaders of 100 countries who arrive next week for the last week of the conference including Prime Minister Singh, US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The nature, scope and objective of such a political agreement is not clear but whatever its contents is, it is expected to be worked into a legally binding document sometime next year, according to the UN.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has stressed that these political commitments must include ambitious emission reduction targets for industrialised countries, nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing countries, and financial and technological resources for developing countries to adapt and achieve clean economic growth.

"We don't want any (thing) suddenly if there is lack of consensus on any paper.. at that time something is put on the table in the final moment and we are faced with fait accompli and that is the view of every single member of G-77 and China," Saran said.

Before the High Level Meet, the two ad-hoc working groups-- the Ad Hoc Working group on the Long Term Cooperative Action (LCA) under the Bali Action Plan and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol (KP) will be continuing their work from where the negotiations left off in Barcelona.

The drafting process under the LCA began on Tuesday on the basis of the Barcelona papers and is being translated into agreed language. On the KP side, there is no drafting because the issues are still being addressed.