News | Energy Efficiency

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/After-Menon-Shyam-Saran-to-get-MoS-rank/articleshow/5581676.cms

The PM's special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, is set to be elevated to the rank of minister of state. Sources confirmed the move to redesignate the ex-foreign secretary, who after his part in the nuclear deal, is also seen as a key figure in India's climate diplomacy.

The decision to make the 1970 batch IFS officer has been taken in view of Shiv Shankar Menon, three years junior in service, taking charge as national security advisor. Also an ex-foreign secretary, Menon has MoS rank as was the case with his predecessor M K Narayanan.

The step-up for Saran means the PM is keen to retain him in his office and is read as a vote of confidence in the hard-nosed approach the former diplomat has advocated. He has, of course, been an articulate defender of the shift in India's position on voluntary emission cuts, but has at times been more cautious than environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

There will be a degree of incongruity in his being MoS while Ramesh is also MoS with independent charge. There is speculation that this may be set right whenever a reshuffle occurs since, as an official said, Saran cannot be seen on the same footing as a minister who addresses a wide range of domestic and international agenda.

Ramesh has led the `flexible' line on climate change and the two are known to have suggested divergent prescriptions for India's negotiating stance at the formal and informal negotiations. But it is Ramesh's approach that altered India's stance on key issues, which has garnered more support. The minister has since clearly said that he enjoys the PM's mandate and that India had to make the right signals on cuts ahead of the Copenhagen conference to avoid looking like a holdout.

While the minister initially appeared to believe, some felt, that India sign on to the Copenhagen Accord, Saran had advised the government to move cautiously. In the event, the government preferred to convey its domestic and voluntary actions to reduce climate changing emissions to the UN climate convention without associating itself with the accord -- as the UN secretary general and industrialised countries desired.

Saran is also seen as having pushed hard and got the 20,000 mw solar mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change off the ground when several other initiatives have floundered. Saran's elevation, meanwhile, is bound to stir great interest in international climate circles where differences in the Indian camp are closely followed.