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.
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.
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.