Climate pact in place, but falls short

About 16 hours after US President Barack Obama brokered a “non-binding political” accord at Copenhagen, agreed to by India and China, the climate conference decided to take note of the accord but refused to adopt it fully. Chetan Chauhan reports...What it means

Updated on: Dec 20, 2009, 02:04:38 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Copenhagen

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About 16 hours after US President Barack Obama brokered a “non-binding political” accord at Copenhagen, agreed to by India and China, the climate conference decided to take note of the accord but refused to adopt it fully.

Many poor nations refused to sign the accord as they believed it would eventually kill the Kyoto Protocol, which had obligatory emission reduction commitments for rich countries. The Copenhagen accord would be a voluntary agreement for countries to adopt, not a United Nations (UN) document like the Kyoto Protocol.

Without a legally binding document, the summit turned into a damp squib.

“It is a letter of intent,” said Yvo de Boer, UN Executive Secretary. “The accord reminds us there is huge ground to be covered before the next climate meet in Mexico [in 2010].”

“Finally, we see the deal,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, admitting it was short of what world leaders were expected to deliver. “The challenge is to turn this non-binding deal into a binding one.”

CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury, part of the Indian delegation, said India allowed windows for rich countries to kill the Kyoto Protocol.

Many nations refused to sign the Copenhagen accord unless altered to meet the goal of a 1.5-degrees Celsius temperature rise by 2020 and 25-40 per cent emission cuts for rich countries. The acco-rd failed to give any emission reduction targets for 2020, but spoke of 50 per cent reductions by 2050. The accord, which lists commitments of rich countries and developing economies and provides for $130 billion (Rs 6.04 lakh crore) for least developed countries, will be applicable from January 2010.

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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