Late night huddle at Durban fails to resolve differences

Talks stuck on emission cuts for emerging countries, efforts on to seal deal. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Dec 9, 2011, 22:34:04 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Durban

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Countries were in a huddle till late in the night over the timeframe and nature of the legally binding treaty, in which India and China, were being branded as deal breakers.

Negotiators claim that the talks would continue till Saturday evening when a general assembly meeting could be called. "It is going down to wire. But, we are optimistic of a deal," a climate negotiator.

The Durban Climate Summit is working on a declaration of the future course of actions with sometimes up to 2020. But, the biggest question stalling the talks is whether emerging countries would have to take binding carbon emission cuts by 2020 or later.

European Union, island and least developed nations wants to operationalise a legal treaty with binding emission cuts latest by 2020.

China has opposed any such move saying that it will announce its willingness to accept emission cuts only 2020 and want firm commitment of rich nations on long term finance for Green Climate Fund and other financial instruments.

India is willing to accept a legally binding treaty minus emission cuts but before that wants to know the nature of binding element in the treaty. India is also cautious as any agreement to legally binding can create political storm back home for the minister Jayanthi Natarajan and is toying the Chinese line.

"Climate Action Network South Asia urges parties to ensure that outcome from Durban saves the climate and does not get dragged down by national interests," said Sanjay Vashist of CANSA, while urging countries not to put conditionalities on the future of millions of vulnerable peoples.

The Durban declaration will mention equity but India's other two issues of concern -- unilateral trade measures in guise of climate change and intellectual rights related to clean technology transfer --- may fall off the table.

The declaration will also include Green Climate Fund (GCF) with some money as Maiti Nkoana -Mashabane said, "we are looking at long term finance for GCF." Operationalisation o the Adaption framework and technology mission by 2012 could also be there.

There could be extension of discussion on second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol for next year's climate conference in Qatar. Climate negotiators, however, say the declaration would say negotiations on reduced emissions from deforestration and degradation of forests, called REDD.

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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