The carbon tax on flights landing in European airports that can cost a passenger an additional up to Rs 300 is going to stay.
"No way the Parliament will change the law," said Jo Leinen, chairman of European Parliament delegation to climate talks at Durban, claiming that the criticism of the European emission trading scheme (EU-ETS) was biased.
India and other developing countries had opposed the carbon tax on aviation sector from January 2012 terming it unfair trade practice in name of climate change and violative of the basic spirit of United Nations' climate convention.
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Not just aviation. The EU also wants carbon tax on maritime transport, which a UN committee has proposed despite opposition from India and other developing countries. "EU-ETS is key to reduce huge emissions from these sector (aviation and maritime) not covered by any national law," Lienen said.
Binding emission cuts: Russia wants a graduation scheme introduced in the UN climate convention which will automatically put countries with rising emissions such as India and China into the annex-I grade of nations, who have mandatory emission reduction targets.
The proposal which has support of United States and Europe is seen stiff opposition of India and China, which has ruled out review of the convention. "That is not an issue of discussion," Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan said.
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On the other track, European Union wants emerging economies such as India and China to take mandatory emission reducton targets latest by 2020.
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On the other track, European Union wants emerging economies such as India and China to take mandatory emission reducton targets latest by 2020.
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"Big economies should not try to buy time and should act in a time-frame," European Union's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said.
EU also wants that in the Durban outcome there should be a link between second commitment period to Kyoto Protocol, world's only climate treaty and having a new legally binding agreement by 2015.
US although does not support a legally binding treaty like India but wants mandatory emission cuts comparable to existing emissions for emerging economies such as India and China.
"We have no quarel with India on legally binding issue. I think conditions are not ripe for that sort of agreement," said US special envoy on climate change Todd Stern.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
