Responding directly to India Japan made a very categorical statement: “Japanese government cannot accept any scenario of simple extension of Kyoto Protocol which does not include non-parties (US) and major developing countries, including you India.” By this statement Japan has made it clear that there no possibility of a deal until China and India take commitments.

Saudi Arabia then said: “We are sure our Indian colleagues will have capability to answer Japan but my question to Japan is that are we re-negotiating the Kyoto treaty or the Bali Action Plan because the word ‘major developing countries’ is not there at all. It is too late for that if we need some agreement at Copenhagen”.

Chair then gave India the opportunity to respond and Sethi said: “We are thankful to Japan for at least clarifying what the agenda is.”

Saudi Arabia also raised the issue of concept of registry. They said that registry will end up being a list of NAMAs and developed countries will then pick and choose which of these can be done on their own and which ones they want to support. This will lead to cherry picking. This is the idea of registry that we get from developed countries.

Overall in the entire plenary developing many raised the issue of registry and its operating mechanism saying in the currently proposed format it will not work. This will be further discussed.

This open spat between India and Japan led to speculation in the evening that the talks on the verge of breaking down.