India scores as US dilutes its stand

The US on Tuesday agreed to allow verification of supported voluntary domestic mitigation actions under the United Nations framework, in a major victory for India. The US had so far been insisting on the measurement, review and verification (MRV) regime outside the UN system under the WB or IMF, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jun 10, 2010, 02:40:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Bonn

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The US on Tuesday agreed to allow verification of supported voluntary domestic mitigation actions under the United Nations framework, in a major victory for India.

The US had so far been insisting on the measurement, review and verification (MRV) regime outside the UN system under the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.

India had been considered soft towards the US on MRV. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had repeatedly been questioned in Parliament by the CPM and BJP for allowing international verification of domestic mitigation actions.

A huge step forward was taken at a meeting on MRV on Tuesday. The US, which has been asking for a stringent MRV regime for India and China, agreed to put the system under the UN’s subsidiary group on implementation (SBI). The SBI can have a panel of experts to review and analyse the domestic mitigation actions of developing countries, the US said, supported by Europe, Australia and Japan.

“We have no problem,” said an Indian negotiator, who described the US stand as an “improved position”.

“But, the panel should consist of experts representing all major blocks in the UN climate talks to ensure transparency and fairness.”

There was an agreement that periodicity of national communications on domestic mitigation actions to the UN should be two years. While the domestic mitigation actions supported by international finance would be subject to international verification, the unsupported actions would not be available for review.

The UN group on implementation of mitigation actions will draft rules on the MRV process.

There was consensus on review mechanism following India’s submission that Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) supported by international finance, should be recorded in a registry along with relevant technology, finance and capacity building and subject to international MRV as per new UN rules.

“Domestic mitigation actions that are not supported by finance and technology under UN climate convention will be subject to only domestic arrangement of their MRV,” India said in its submission. For India, domestic MRV means submitting a report to the Parliament on regular basis.

India also rejected the demand of rich nations to put low carbon strategy under the international verification system, saying that the low carbon strategy was not part of international mechanisms of funding the NAMAs because it was a “national and autonomous” exercise.

India in July will outline its low carbon growth strategy to meet its commitment for reduction of emission intensity.

Speaking on behalf of the developing world, India said mitigation actions were voluntary in nature and should be taken in the context of sustainable development.

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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