India, China say no to new targets

A new divide has emerged between rich and the developing nations with India and China opposing a move to link trade with reducing carbon emissions.

Updated on: Oct 11, 2010, 23:55:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A new divide has emerged between rich and the developing nations with India and China opposing a move to link trade with reducing carbon emissions.

The developed world, led by the US and Europe, has been talking of imposing a tax on countries that fail to abide by a binding climate treaty, in which India and China will have to take emissions control measures. They argue import tariffs are needed to offset the loss of competitiveness industries in countries that accept binding targets are likely to face. This claim is also being backed by the World Trade Organisation.

The Basic group of countries — India, China, Brazil and South Africa — called it a “unilateral protectionist measure” and rejected it on Monday at a meeting in Tainjin, China.

“(Basic) ministers rejected the notion of unilateral actions against products and services of developing countries on grounds of combating climate change, which will jeopardise international collaboration on climate change and international trade,” said a resolution adopted by the ministers.

The text, which India first proposed in 2009, says developed nations “shall not resort to any form of unilateral measures including countervailing border measures, against goods and services imported from developing countries on grounds of protection of climate”.

“We would like this text to be reflected in the final (climate) agreement,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at the meeting attended by officials from Yemen, Ethiopia, Venezuela, Argentina and Egypt.

India has said such moves would violate the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ramesh expressed concern over reports saying some of the measures were compatible with WTO rules. “The report has come as somewhat of a shock to us,” he 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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