Climate negotiators chalk out pact parameters

Delegates at UN conference have agreed on broad parameters of a "weak" climate agreement expected to be signed in Durban, South Africa, in 2011, despite objections from Bolivia. The agreement has received the approval of major carbon emitters - India, United States and China.

Updated on: Dec 13, 2010, 24:14:28 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Cancun

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Delegates at UN conference have agreed on broad parameters of a "weak" climate agreement expected to be signed in Durban, South Africa, in 2011, despite objections from Bolivia. The agreement has received the approval of major carbon emitters - India, United States and China.

The Cancun Agreement- which was supposed to be a saviour for the United Nations multi-lateral process, after the Copenhagen conference took note only of the final agreement - has been termed as weak.

"The emission reduction pledges on table will result in a rise in temperature by 3.2 by 2050 as against 2 degrees C stated in the Cancun deal," said Komi Naidoo, Executive Director of NGO Greenpeace.

The agreement has unquantified reduction in emissions by 2050, a US $ 100-billion climate fund with no timeline on the funding, a technology transfer mechanism without assurance for free transfer of patents, carbon trading mechanism to protect forests and a fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Future of Kyoto Protocol, the existing UN pact that obliges about 40 developed nations to cut greenhouse gases, hangs in balance. Kyoto is supposed to be extended six months before its first period runs out in 2012.

Japan, Canada and Russia are adamant that they will not extend Kyoto and say that shifting world power means that all major emitters should sign up for a new treaty to begin in 2013.

"Never is a word that doesn't exist in politics," said Gordon Shepherd of the green group WWF of the prospects of Japan changing its mind and signing up to a second Kyoto round. "It (Cancun agreement) didn't resolve the problem, you're just buying another year," said John Meyer of Union of Independent Scientists.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who won accolades from delegates for his constructive role, said the BASIC group (of India, China, Brazil and South Africa) are happy with the balanced outcome. "There is always a compromise in a multi-lateral process and we are part of that compromise," Ramesh said.

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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