Climate agreement draft deepens rich-poor nation divide

A new draft of an ambitious climate agreement in Paris deepened divisions between rich and developing nations on Thursday, as a negotiator from an affluent country described New Delhi as “difficult” after India and China rejected a proposal that they become donors rather than recipients of climate funds.

Updated on: Dec 4, 2015, 02:03:35 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Paris

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A new draft of an ambitious climate agreement in Paris deepened divisions between rich and developing nations on Thursday, as a negotiator from an affluent country described New Delhi as “difficult” after India and China rejected a proposal that they become donors rather than recipients of climate funds.

Guests visit a stand during the UN conference on climate change in Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris on Thursday. (AFP)

The delegate’s remarks came hours after the G77-plus-China group, the biggest block of developing countries that also includes India, tore into the blueprint and the position adopted by the developed world. “This is not a bridging text but a destroying one,” said Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, chair of G-77 plus China, without naming the countries she held responsible.

Others from the group blamed the United States and Europe for “hijacking” the negotiating process as Diseko described the introduction of the concept of “self-differentiation” in the draft as “domain of the perverse”.

While clarifying that the draft will be updated in the next two days, she identified “finance” and “differentiation” as the biggest sticking points in reaching an agreement.

A negotiator from a rich country who did not want to be identified, said Europe was willing to enhance its financial commitment for the post 2020 period but the United States had “simply said no” unless the developing world agreed to its conditions.

A diplomatic source from the European climate team said countries like India were speaking of “climate justice” but there was no clarity on how to translate it in time and operationalise it.

An Indian negotiator hit back, saying that providing money for loss and damage, a financial mechanism for vulnerable countries to get money for loss from extreme weather events, and a clear road map of the enhanced climate finance in the Paris agreement will ensure “climate justice” for billions of poor in the world.

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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