Nudged by Manmohan, UK pledges £1 m for Aichi targets
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has provided the necessary fillip to ensure that the Hyderabad conference on biodiversity delivers a "positive outcome" on resource mobilisation agreeable to over 180 participating countries.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has provided the necessary fillip to ensure that the Hyderabad conference on biodiversity delivers a "positive outcome" on resource mobilisation agreeable to over 180 participating countries.
India became the first champion of the Hyderabad pledge to announce US $50 million (Rs. 250 crore) to strengthen biodiversity institutions within India and abroad on Tuesday.
United Kingdom became second country a day later by announcing one million pounds for implementation of Aichi targets under Nagoya Protocol of the Convention of Biological Diversity.
"Gesture of Prime Minister had positive impact on the negotiations and we are looking at concluding the negotiations by Thursday evening," environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who is also president of the conference, said.
UNEP executive director Achim Stiener also complimented Prime Minister Singh for taking a lead while asking the developed world to "do more" as the developing countries were providing funds to meet the Aichi targets.
"The Nagoya Protocol has accelerated domestic contribution to save biodiversity and I expected the developed countries to response adequately," he told HT.
Natarajan said that they were looking at a positive message that all the countries are committed to meet the Aichi targets agreed two years ago and would be willing to provide sufficient funds.
The conference of over 180 countries is expected to deliver a political statement outlining the need to conserve biodiversity but may not mention the money required for the same. It is likely to outline the timeframe within which the countries will commit funds for implementing the Aichi targets.
Seeing no consensus on resource mobilization, India is looking at having an agreement on interim targets under Nagoya Protocol for achievement with countries agreeing to provide funds to meet these targets in the coming years.
Natarajan said the interim targets should not get bogged down by numbers (read money) as all countries are committed to achieve Aichi targets.
A joint study by India and United Kingdom had prescribed a need of anything between US $130 billion to US $430 billion to meet the Aichi targets.
The developed world led by European Union, Canada and Japan had blocked any move to specify the money required with the developing countries asking them to do so saying that they had gone out of the way to achieve Aichi targets.
The conference has, however, decided that two important agenda items -- reduced emissions from deforestation of forests and geo-engineering -- will be decided by the UN conference on climate change, which is scheduled to meet in Doha, Qatar, later this year.
"It is more a climate issue than that of biodiversity," said MAA Farooqui, additional secretary in the environment ministry.