India on Wednesday made it clear to the West that it will be firm in its negotiations on climate change and will not be cowed down by aggressive postures taken by anyone, including the United States. Ahead of the Paris Climate Change Conference, top sources in the Environment Ministry said, “India would not be bullied into accepting the position of the developed countries.” Such reactions are particularly relevant in the wake of comments by US Secretary of State John Kerry that in climate change negotiations in Paris, India would be “a challenge”. Reacting to Kerry’s remarks as “unfair and unwarranted”, the sources clarified that India’s position had been arrived at after extensive discussions with at least 60 countries and that it would stick to its stand. The sources highlighted the country’s position that the developed world must recognise that they have to atone for the historical carbon emissions that they have been putting out in the atmosphere for over 150 years in their search for prosperity. This according to them was absolutely fair on the part of developing nations to expect and demand in the climate summit. Citing official data, the sources pointed out that there is a total available carbon space of 3,000 Giga tonnes. “2,000 Giga tonnes are already filled up. Hence, the carbon space needs to be vacated for developing nations,” the sources said. They further pointed out that although much has been talked about finance, little has been done in this regard. “A new figure of 62 billion dollars is now being talked about but the pledge is only 10 billion dollars. However, if one sees actually, only 168 million dollars worth of projects have been sanctioned. There is no actual movement on finance. Therefore, India will be stressing for 100 billion dollars for Green Climate Fund (GCF). Finance will be a real issue of negotiations,” they said. India will also pitch for transfer of technology to developing countries which will help fight climate change. Unless technology is available, it is not possible to mitigate climate change, the sources said. There should be a free flow of technology and it should be free of licensing cost and at an affordable cost, they added.