When India, China, South Africa and Brazil meet over the weekend in Cape town, the US’s demand for making Copenhagen Accord a part of the UN climate negotiations will top the conference agenda.
When India, China, South Africa and Brazil meet over the weekend in Cape town, the US’s demand for making Copenhagen Accord a part of the UN climate negotiations will top the conference agenda.
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The four-nation bloc, better known as BASIC countries, have acceded to the accord reached at the Danish capital but don’t want it to be the third track of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiating process. The US wants the accord to be part of the negotiations that start in May first week.
The group, looking for a middle path, has in a conference note decided to look into those elements of the accord that can be included in the UN process. Long Term Cooperative Action on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol, the existing climate treaty whose first commitment period expires in 2012, are both parts of the UNFCC process.
Emission reduction commitments by rich countries and unaided mitigation action expected of developing countries are part of the accord.
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“Bringing the accord into UN process can help in bringing the US on board…,” said one of India’s climate negotiators. A strategy to get key political agreements of the accord in formal talks would be finalised in Cape Town, said the negotiator, who didn’t wish to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
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“Bringing the accord into UN process can help in bringing the US on board…,” said one of India’s climate negotiators. A strategy to get key political agreements of the accord in formal talks would be finalised in Cape Town, said the negotiator, who didn’t wish to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
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India wants commitments from rich countries, voluntary unsupported actions, or emission cuts without aid, from developing world, financial help for the least developed nations and technology transfer in the UN negotiating texts.
BASIC nations are keen that the Copenhagen Green Fund of $ 30 billion per year gets operationalised by next climate summit in Mexico in December.
Future of Kyoto Protocol and a shorter second commitment period under it will also be looked into. Several rich countries want the protocol to be scrapped. To counter the pressure, the bloc will consider a framework to replace it. “We want to be ready for any draft of rich countries on a new protocol replacing Kyoto,” the official said.
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.
