Paris climate deal a compromise, will lead to 3 degree temp rise: CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment, on Sunday, said the Paris climate agreement was a “compromise” deal which can be termed as minimum denominator as it will lead the world to 3 to 3.5 degree temperature rise of pre-industrial level by turn of the century.

Updated on: Dec 13, 2015, 06:39:07 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Paris

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Indian non-government organisation -- the Centre for Science and Environment -- on Sunday said the Paris climate agreement was a “compromise” deal which can be termed as minimum denominator as it will lead the world to 3 to 3.5 degree temperature rise of pre-industrial level by turn of the century.

A woman walks past a map showing the elevation of the sea in the last 22 years, during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget, near Paris, France. (Reuters Photo)

The agreement’s long term goal is 2 degree Celsius with an endeavour to achieve 1.5 degree.

Sunita Narain, director general of CSE, said many details have been left out for the future of the developing countries, which India will have to fight in the next 10 years. “Not much enhancement in ambition will happen in the next 10 years and the developing countries have not committed any significant finance or emission cuts before 2020,” she said.

The CSE also said the phrase ‘historical responsibility’ of the rich nations to fight climate change has been erased and thus weakens the obligations of developed countries to take actions due to their past emissions. “Without historical responsibility, equity can now be interpreted only through the words ‘respective capabilities’ of the original CBDR-RC phrase,” added Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE.

As a victory for India, the CSE said, it has got equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and also got terms like climate justice, sustainable development and consumption included. But, none of these words are in the operational parts of the text -- leaving no commitment for them in future, the CSE said.

Unlike its belief that India will not have to enhance its climate action plans in new name and shame regime, CSE analysis showed that India will be under constant pressure to take more burden for mitigating climate change by the time the next review of all the nationally determined contributions of countries take place.

An Indian network of 141 civil society organisations Climate Action Network for South Asia (CANSA) termed the agreement as “durable and dynamic” for but claimed it had fallen short of being fully “fair and responsive” to future needs.

Director of CANSA, Sanjay Vashist, said the agreement ensures that all act together on climate change to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius -- and the existing climate action plans will not be able to achieve. “The onus is now on developed countries to fulfil their promises and scale up climate finance flows to support mitigation and adaptation efforts, especially for most vulnerable countries,” he said.

Other members of CANSA from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka said the agreement ends the right of the most vulnerable countries to claim liabilities and compensation for ‘Loss and Damage’ but said that it will promote technology transfer.

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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