G-77 countries reject alternative Danish proposal

An alternative Danish proposal on the new protocol to replace Kyoto after 2012, when it expires, floated by China and supported by India, Brazil and South Africa had failed to get support of the other developing countries, reports Chetan Chauhan. Read the proposal document

Updated on: Dec 9, 2009, 13:23:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Copennhagen

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An alternative Danish proposal on the new protocol to replace Kyoto after 2012, when it expires, floated by China and supported by India, Brazil and South Africa has failed to get support of the other developing countries on the ground that it does not specify deep emission cut targets and fails to seek a comprehensive amount of finance for the developing nations from the rich countries.

The document was prepared by China and signed by others at a meeting in Beijing two days after the first Danish draft proposal emerged. It has been obtained by Hindustan Times, the first newspaper to have a copy of the document.

Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh had described it as against Danish proposal.

BASIC is the document supported by India, China, Brazil and China fails to get support of G-77, which says it lacks specific targets for the rich countries and fails as a counter document for the Danish proposal.

The document called as BASIC proposal (named after the countries that signed it) was termed as an alternative proposal to weaken the Danish draft, which talked about scrapping differentiated responsibility under Kyoto and instead proposed a new protocol based on pledge and verification regime.

"Even though India and China are asking for retaining Kyoto Protocol after 2012, the document fails to reflect it completely," said Sirish Sinha, head of climate energy and energy section in with the Indian section of International NGO WWF.

The BASIC document, however, supports the existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the only platform for fighting climate change as against the Danish proposal, which is seeking a new framework.

The BASIC document was circulated at the G-77 plus China meeting this weekend but failed to get their support.

"It does not meet our aspirations," spokesperson for G-77 plus China Lumumba Stantslaus Dl-Aping said on Tuesday. "It was circulated to counter the Danish proposal. Good idea but does not work for all of us."

The Sudanese diplomat Aping apparently made it clear that now small island nations would also bring a proposal talking about the "aspirations" of the poor and vulnerable nations, while rejecting the Danish proposal outrightly.

"It will not be a surprise if small island nations have their our own proposal to oppose Danish draft and to be alternate to BASIC document," he said.

However, the G-77 plus China had threatened not too sign a deal or any agreement --- even political --- at Copenhagen, if the Danish government pursued its proposal.

"We will not exit but will not sign the deal," he said, in response to Indian Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh's threat to exit Copenhagen negotiations, if the Danish proposal is pushed through in its present format.

Sinha, however, pointed out that the both BASIC and Danish proposals have failed to get consensus from the bigger group of poorer nations represented by G-77 plus China and Small Island Nations group.

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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