The first blueprints of a possible final Copenhagen agreement were released in draft form on Friday by two ad-hoc groups charged with working out a compromise between the rich and developing nations, reports Chetan Chauhan. Full coverage
The first blueprints of a possible final Copenhagen agreement were released in draft form on Friday by two ad-hoc groups charged with working out a compromise between the rich and developing nations.
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Neither draft met with the complete approval of either the rich or developing nations, suggesting a long negotiation process before a final text can be approved and placed before heads of state on December 18.
One draft, by the group on long-term cooperative action (LCA), asks leaders to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 to 2ºC. To do so, rich nations would have to limit emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020. One gaping hole in this draft was that it did not specify the exact amount of carbon mitigation finance.
Europe on Friday announced a mitigation fund of $3.5 billion (Rs 350 crore) over three years. The US has pledged $10 billion (Rs 1,000 crore) a year for three years — both nowhere near what the developing nations want.
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The second draft asks rich nations to reduce emissions by 30 to 45 per cent but did not specify a base level over which those reductions should occur. India and China want the base year to be 1990.
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The second draft asks rich nations to reduce emissions by 30 to 45 per cent but did not specify a base level over which those reductions should occur. India and China want the base year to be 1990.
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Delegates have a day to respond to the drafts.
India was dissatisfied with the LCA draft. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, “We have a lot of differences with it in its present form.”
Senior negotiator Chandrashekhar Dasgupta said, “It does not indicate forward movement in negotiations.”
The European Union also rejected it. The US said no deal was possible without major economies committing to cuts
In one regard, the LCA draft reflects India and China’s position: it doesn’t require developing countries to cut emissions. And developed countries won’t be allowed to monitor the domestic mitigation actions of developing countries.
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Non-profit organisations welcomed the draft. Greenpeace said it provided a chance for a “fair, ambitious and legally binding” deal next week.
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.
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