India stands tough at Doha talks

An attempt by rich nations to side-track concerns of developing countries on how to combat climate change in long term was stonewalled by India, China and African countries, which lodged their protest with the host of global climate conference— Chetan Chauhan Qatar;

Updated on: Dec 4, 2012, 02:55:37 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Doha

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An attempt by rich nations to side-track concerns of developing countries on how to combat climate change in long term was stonewalled by India, China and African countries, which lodged their protest with the host of global climate conference— Qatar.

A UN ad-hoc working group had come out with a proposal to close negotiations on long-term cooperative action (LCA) on climate change without considering the concerns raised by the developing nations on finance, intellectual property rights, unilateral climate measures and equity.

"The proposal is not acceptable to G-77 plus China. Representatives of 10 countries met the conference president (Qatar) to lodge a protest," said a senior Indian negotiator.

The issues flagged are important for India as it wants clean technology without intellectual property rights, a firm commitment from the developed world to upscale its financial obligation to meet the promised US $100bn by 2020 and prevent rich countries from imposing unilateral measures such as carbon tax on aviation and maritime services on the developing nations.

“We are not building new homes where they are not required,” said chief climate negotiator of the US Ted Stern, in a reaction to the concerns raised by the developing nations. “Most of their issues have been addressed in the Durban Platform.”

Stating negotiations under the LCA track has to end, EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the developed world has kept its promise of giving US $30bn under the fast-track finance and would meet its commitment to give US $100bn by 2020.

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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