The future of the Kyoto Protocol was a big question mark for the second week of climate change negotiations, said Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh before representatives from more than 190 countries resumed talks on Monday morning.

Ramesh also complained of the slow progress in the financing of $30 billion promised for Africa, small island states and least developed countries.

"The fast-start finance is neither fast, nor start, nor finance," he said.

Despite his doubts, he said India is working with the other BASIC countries - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - and G77 to achieve a "positive outcome" of "balanced decisions" from Cancun.

For India, the decisions have several important building blocks, such as a commitment from developed countries to renew the protocol; a commitment on the disbursement of the $30 billion; a decision to establish a method of technological cooperation; a method to promote adaptation to climate change; a forestry agreement; and some measures to promote transparency and accountability on mitigation actions.

"We cannot compromise on the Kyoto Protocol; we must have the extension of the (Kyoto Protocol) second period," he said.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Its first phase, a five-period between 2008 and 2012, expires at the end of next year.

China and India are not bound by the protocol to reduce GHG emissions because of their status as developing countries. Both countries are major emitters of GHG.

Ramesh said the BASIC countries made a major compromise last year in Copenhagen by accepting to introduce international consultation and analysis over voluntary actions in reducing emissions.

Carrying a black backpack and dressed in his trademark white kurta - sometimes with a dark-red vest - Remesh has kept a busy schedule, talking with his counterparts to coordinate their positions or meeting activist groups and journalists.

Ramesh is promoting the alternative idea of the "equitable share of sustainable development". He said that when you have a global goal that limits temperature rise, you must ensure that developmental rights of developing countries are fully protected.

He said China and India have to grow at 9 to 10 percent a year.

So China and India "cannot compromise on our developmental path", he said. "We need to abolish poverty; we need to provide electricity, to provide mobility, to industrialize. Sustainable development is the fundamental right of every Chinese, every Indian. Why should we barter it away?" As for per capita share of emissions, he said: "It is not the right to pollute; it is the right to sustainable development".

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