In climate fight at Paris, the devil will be in the detail

Ministers from 196 countries will discover the devil in the detail when they move forward to deliver an overarching climate framework by the end of next week, with finance as the biggest sticking point.

Updated on: Dec 7, 2015, 24:47:39 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Paris

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Ministers from 196 countries will discover the devil in the detail when they move forward to deliver an overarching climate framework by the end of next week, with finance as the biggest sticking point.

Participants from 196 countries will deliver an overarching climate framework at the end of next week. (REUTERS Photo)

The draft of the Paris Outcome has been trimmed down from 54 pages to 21 but the 10-page reflection note appended by two co-chairs indicates a “difficult but possible” task awaits the ministers.

Developing countries — the G-77 — and China will not agree to any Paris deal without a clear roadmap on finance and differentiation as defined in 1992 and embedded in all six elements of the proposed agreement, said Meena Raman of Third World Network. G-77 and China also wants more clarity on the rules for the game next week.

But she gave hope. “We should not lose the optimism.”

The US may not agree to differentiated regime for measurement and verification of climate action commitments but can put some more money on the table if the other pool of donors get expanded, said Jennifer Morgan of US-based think tank World Resources Institute (WRI).

India and other countries will open their “real” cards next week but the most watched would be the two silent players from the first week of negotiations — Europe and China. There haven’t been much press briefings by the two big emitters and their activity at Le Bourget has been minimal.

An Indian negotiator said the 28-nation European Union seems to be divided on a lot many issues and one of its members, France, is organising the conference. “We will see a more aggressive EU next week as they will like their position to be clearly reflected in the outcome.”

China may continue to negotiate its position through different groups such as the Like Minded Developing Countries which has been very vocal in the first week and G-77 without coming to forefront.

“Unlike us, there is no pressure on China to offer more. They have already committed what the West wanted, though because of their domestic air pollution compulsions,” a civil society observer said.

That is the broader geo-politics.

The narrow real fight will be over inclusion or exclusion of every word, comma or a full stop and even a country as small as Tuvalu in the Pacific can stall proceedings as they did in Copenhagen.

“It took us one night to decide between legally enforceable and legally binding in the Durban outcome. We opted for legally enforceable as negotiators got ready to leave the venue,” said an old-timer explaining the nature of the final round of talks.

So, the debate and discussion necessarily is not over the broader terms but the final language in the agreement. “Shall mean binding and should not-binding. So, negotiators may fight for hours to replace shall with should. And that is why the devil of the agreement lies in detail of the text,” said an Indian negotiator.

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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