India says affluent nations must pay up, labelled ‘obstructionist’

India was labelled “obstructionist” by rich nations at the Paris climate talks on Tuesday after it joined a chorus from a group of developing countries saying a likely global deal must produce a clear climate finance road map and ensure affluent nations bear a heavier burden.

Updated on: Dec 2, 2015, 13:13:29 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Paris

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

India was labelled “obstructionist” by rich nations at the Paris climate talks on Tuesday after it joined a chorus from a group of developing countries saying a likely global deal must produce a clear climate finance road map and ensure affluent nations bear a heavier burden.

From left: Microsoft founcer Bill Gates, US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the climate change summit in Paris. (PTI)

China made a statement on behalf of the BASIC bloc, also comprising Brazil, South Africa and India, saying the climate agreement must draw a line between rich and less-privileged nations on the issues of climate abatement, adaptation and technology transfer and the deal must be “inclusive, comprehensive and durable”.

The declaration made at the plenary also expressed concern over the missing mitigation ambition in the pre-2020 emission reduction commitments of rich nations.

The statement came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised at the conference that India will not agree to a deal without a clear differentiation in responsibilities and action between rich and developing nations in all aspects, such as mitigation, adaptation and transparency.

Implications of the PM’s strong stand were visible on Tuesday with negotiators from the developed world describing India as “obstructionist”, especially on the contentious issue of review mechanism of every country’s climate action plan for 2030 and the future of differentiation enshrined in a 1992 convention.

Tensions emerged a day after a conciliatory note by heads of states at the high-level summit, with negotiators being told by conference president and French foreign minister Fabius Laurent to wind up talks and submit a draft of the agreement for discussion by ministers on Saturday.

Indian negotiator Ajay Mathur explained that the talks on the pre-2020 commitment of the rich nations had got lost in the din and BASIC countries want it back in focus at the agreement.

“It appears they (the rich nations) have forgotten about their pre-2020 commitment,” he said.

Members of civil society like Sunita Narain, director general of the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment, welcomed the Prime Minister defining equity in terms of “fair distribution” of the remaining carbon space.

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

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.