India not optimistic about climate deal in SA

India has lowered its expectations from climate conference in the port city of Durban with environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan saying that her initial "optimism" on a good outcome was "tampered" as convergence eluded developing and the develped world. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Dec 9, 2011, 09:54:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Durban

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India has lowered its expectations from climate conference in the port city of Durban with environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan saying that her initial "optimism" on a good outcome was "tampered" as convergence eluded developing and the develped world.

European Union is being seen as a biggest stumbling block with its insistence on the roadmap with definite timelines to achieve a legally binding treaty by 2012. Both, the Basic quartlet -- of India, China, Brazil and South Africa -- and United States have different contours on legally binding that the European proposal.

Even the small island nation, which were intially seen as backing the EU, had announced opposition to the EU roadmap saying that cannot agree for a legally binding treaty by 2020. "We believe time is now to act," said Lowe out. Kellman.

Natarajan, however, said India understands that Europe is facing economic crises but it should make its commitment to fulfill the promise of providing finance atleast for the Green Climate Fund (GCF). "It (GCF) should not remain an empty shell," she said, after talking with US and EU for over five hours since Wednesday night.

India has sought capitalisation of GCF with adequate money by the rich nations have offered US $ 100 million so far even though rich nations had promised US $ 30 bn by 2012.

"We strained every nerve. But, cannot see any convergence at end of the tunnel," she said, while being "cautiously optimistic" of an outcome with over a day of negotiations remaining.

Natarajan, who was suppose to return on Saturday morning, has postponed her flight by a day as the talks may get extended into early hours of Saturday morning to reach some face saving agreement.

The conference host South Africa has constituted groups under environment ministers from different countries, also called green room, to wriggle out the differences on issue of climate mitigation, review of the pledges, adaption and GCF.

The minister also said that there was traction between nations on equity in future climate change treaty but the developing countries want India to take up its other two agenda itmes -- transfer of technology with patents and unilateral trade barriers in guide of climate change --- at other internatonal forms.

"We have ensured that IPR and trade issues are locked in discussion," she said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
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.Read More

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