Finance and bigger emission reduction holds up talk at Doha

Lack of commitment from the rich nations to increase substantial fund flow to the developed world and jacking of their emission cut targets is holding back an agreement at Doha climate talks, negotiators from developing countries claimed on Wednesday, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Dec 5, 2012, 18:57:53 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Doha, Qatar

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Lack of commitment from the rich nations to increase substantial fund flow to the developed world and jacking of their emission cut targets is holding back an agreement at Doha climate talks, negotiators from developing countries claimed on Wednesday.

Both United States and Europe have refused to upwardly revise their emission cut pledges as sought by the developing countries and have failed to declare how much money it would give to fight climate change between 2013 and 2020, inviting a stark reaction from the poor nations.

“Robust ambition (to cut emissions) and promise of scaling up the funding to 100 billion US dollars a year from 2013 is a must for deal at Doha,” said Pa Onsman Jarju on behalf of the least developed nations (LDC) of the world.

US negotiator Jonathan Pershing claimed that the developed world has given 33 billion US dollars between 2010-2012 to the developing world against the promise of US $ 30 billion and it shows that the rich countries were willing to finance provided there is a “right balance” in the new agreement to be readied by 2015 which is “inclusive” for all countries and “ratifiable”.

The issue of finance has divided the biggest conglomerate of developing countries G-77 plus China with the least developed and island taking the extreme position of seeking 100 billion US dollars from next year whereas China and India taking a moderate stance of scaling up the contribution by 10 billion US dollars a year so that by 2015 the contribution is 60 billion US dollars a year.

China minister equivalent on climate issues Xie Zhenhua said they were looking at mid-term commitment on finance from the rich nations, which can lay a strong “foundation” to achieve a deal at Doha.

The LDC led by Gambia wants 100 billion US dollars a year from rich countries, a demand not acceptable to the developed world led by two big carbon emitters United States and Europe.

“100 billion US dollars is not lot of money. Just three states in US has asked for 83 billion US dollars to deal with Sandy,” said a negotiator on behalf of 43 island nations at UN climate conference, describing the state of play at “Doha being lost in a sandstorm”.

However, there is unity among the developing countries that rich nations need to raise their targets to bridge the growing emission gap to keep the global temperature rise below two degree Celsius by 2050.

Brazil has provided a compromise by promising six month time to rich nations to raise their emission ambition. Europe has already said that it will not increase its emission reduction target from 20% to 30% in Doha.

Other sticky issues at Doha
* Whether second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol should be for five years or eight years

* Financing model for Green Climate Fund decided at Durban in 2011

* Sound accounting rules to verify emission reduction targets of the developed nations

* Road-map for new climate treaty for all, called Durban platform, by 2015

* Capacity building in developing countries to utilize new funding mechanisms under the UN climate convention

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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