US, China close in on carbon accord

The first positive signal emerged from the Cancun climate summit when China agreed to international verification of its carbon emission control measures, a long-standing demand of the US.

Updated on: Dec 3, 2010, 24:22:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The first positive signal emerged from the Cancun climate summit when China agreed to international verification of its carbon emission control measures, a long-standing demand of the US.

India, which has been toeing the Chinese line, is likely to accept international verification of its domestic actions, a contentious topic in country’s domestic politics.

“We have proposed a verification regime under United Nations,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday before leaving for Cancun.

Ramesh’s willingness to accept a UN-regulated verification regime at Cancun can provide additional ammunition to the Opposition, which has stalled Parliament over its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G scam. Ramesh has already submitted a proposal for the verification regime to the UN.

The US, the world’s second largest carbon emitter, had linked its participation to any climate treaty with mandatory verification of its mitigation obligations to major emitters — India, China, Brazil and South Africa. China has promised to reduce its emission intensity for a unit of GDP by 40-45% of the 2005 level and India by 20-25%.

China had refused to accept international verification in Copenhagen but India played a vital role in making China agree to the redefined verification regime in the Copenhagen accord. The process is called measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) and India got international consultation and analysis added to MRV in the accord, thus having China as a signatory to the Copenhagen accord.

On Wednesday, China said it had no objection if the outside world verified its reports on meeting its mitigation targets.

“We have no problem with MRV,” Su Wei, China’s chief negotiator said. “Both countries (US and China) would like to promote the progress and emerge from Cancun with a deal.”

The diplomat said China had put in place a rigorous regime to measure and assess its carbon emissions. India unveiled its domestic MRV system in June, thereby preparing itself for a verification regime. “If US and China agree on MRV, then we can look for a lot of positives from Cancun,” Ramesh said.

Climate conundrum

US had linked its participation to any climate treaty with mandatory verification of its mitigation obligations to major emitters like China, IndiaChina refused to accept global verification in Copenhagen but

India played a vital role in making China agree

On Wednesday, China said it had no objection if the outside world verified its reports on meeting its mitigation targets.

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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