India fails to save Kyoto pact in 'weak' deal

India has virtually agreed to death of Kyoto Protocol that protects interests of the developing countries but ensured some safeguards to achieve high economic growth and its right for sustainable development to eradicate poverty. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Dec 12, 2010, 02:12:30 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Cancun

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India has virtually agreed to death of Kyoto Protocol that protects interests of the developing countries but ensured some safeguards to achieve high economic growth and its right for sustainable development to eradicate poverty.

In the give-away, India has agreed for a binding commitments, international review of its domestic mitigation commitments once in two years and to have low carbon growth in the context of sustainable growth, in a proposal submitted for adoption at the Cancun climate summit of 194 nations saying new agreement will be signed in Durban, South Africa, in 2011.

"It is a balanced agreement in the spirit of constructive compromise," said Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh at a plenary to adopt the drafts on two tracks -- long term cooperative action (LCA) to combat climate change and Kyoto Protocol. "We have worked in the spirit of give and take."

Sunita Narian, Director of NGo Centre for Science and Environment, termed the drafts as weak outcome in which India has given too much. "We (India) have given fatal concessions to the United States without getting anything in return and failed to protect interest of our poor".

In a consensus LCA draft, also being called Cancun Package, finalised after two days of hectic parleys appears to be an extension of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, agreed by 80 countries so far and has several elements of the Kyoto Protocol, the existing climate treaty. One such is having a carbon trading mechanism, called Clean Development Mechanism in climate jargon.

The LCA draft speaks about the aim to restrict temperature rise by two degrees Celsius by 2050 without providing a formula for achieving the same. The Copenhagen Accord was emphatic about the inspiration goal to maintain temperature rise within 1.5 degrees, which finds slight reference in the Cancun Package.

The package aims at unquantified reduction in emissions by 2050, a dilution of the Copenhagen Accord and provides a mechanism on technology transfer, protecting forests and indigenous people. There is no mention of Intellectual Property Rights in the draft.

It aims at creating two green funds -- one for adaptation and another for finance -- but without any commitment from the rich nations on timeframe to give US $ 100 billion as promised in the Accord. "The money provided so far is laughable," Ramesh said.

India success and failures

Success

Having access to sustainable development will mean that India's effort of provding basic living standards for 300 million poor is not compromised

Not having a peaking year for emissions and a bar on increasing emissions by 50 % by 2050 will protect interests of the Indian industry.

India has ensured that green trade barriers are not part of the proposed deal.

Other countries will have a right to assess quantified mitigation commitments as related to economy of the rich nations. This was despite opposition from the United States.

Failure

No commitment for extending the Kyoto Protocol.

Accepted binding commitments for India.

Agreed to international assessment of domestic mitigation actions.

As the two week long conference headed for the finale, Bolivia presented a critique of the LCA draft saying it was a "copy paste" of the accord. "It has voice only a few rich countries," said Bolivian climate negotiator Pablo Solon. However, many countries including United States, European Union, Japan and Maldives welcomed the package. Attempts were on to convince Bolivia till late in the night.

"A balanced outcome but weak for protecting climate," was the reaction of Greenpeace's Executive Director Kumi Naidoo to the proposal. Analysing the outcome of two days of negotiations, a negotiator from a developing country said. "The effort was to ensure that detractors of Kyoto Protocol Japan, Russia, Australia and Canada comes on board along with United States (a non Kyoto party)."

The second draft finalised was on the future of Kyoto Protocol. But, it failed to prescribe a date by when the second commitment period for the protocol will be done.

"The draft has created a confusion on future of Kyoto," Solon said. The LCA draft overshadowed the future of Kyoto with most countries agreeing on the basic tenements of it.

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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