The US for the first time admitted that Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s proposal on transparency in climate mitigation actions reflected some of its concerns.
The US for the first time admitted that Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s proposal on transparency in climate mitigation actions reflected some of its concerns.
HT Image
“It is progressive towards the pledge (of countries to reduce emissions),” said the US’s head of climate team Todd Stern. “Ramesh has submitted an ICA (international consultation and analysis) proposal, which provides remedy regarding information on mitigation actions.”
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
Ramesh’s proposal says that every country whose emissions is more than 1% of the global average should report its mitigation actions to a UN body once every two or three years, and the rest once in five or six years. The regime proposed for the developed world, which has emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, is stricter than the one for the developing world, which has no such commitment.
Raising an issue not addressed in the proposal, Stern wanted to know how the developing world, especially India and China, will define its business as usual (BAU) scenario. Both India and China have committed to reduce emission intensity for per unit of GDP by 2020 in business as usual scenario. “Critical assumption for us at this point is what would be business as usual, as it would vary for each country,” Stern said.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
Most of the elements Stern wanted in the proposed ICA regime matched Ramesh’s proposal. He wanted countries to submit their actions to the UN's Subsidiary Body on Implementation, which Ramesh also said. Another similarity was that reports should be available to every country to scrutinise.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
Most of the elements Stern wanted in the proposed ICA regime matched Ramesh’s proposal. He wanted countries to submit their actions to the UN's Subsidiary Body on Implementation, which Ramesh also said. Another similarity was that reports should be available to every country to scrutinise.
{{/usCountry}}
The ICA and measurement review and verification (MRV) regime are contentious issues after the second commitment period for Kyoto Protocol.
China, which has come a long way in agreeing to ICA-MRV, was clear that international consultation should apply only to voluntary domestic mitigation actions without any foreign aid and MRV to actions supported by international finance. “ICA should respect national sovereignty and should not be intrusive,” said Chinese climate change minister Xie Zhenhua.
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.
Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, Nepal, UK, Bangladesh, Russia and US Iran war Live, get all the latest headlines in one place on Hindustan Times.
Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, Nepal, UK, Bangladesh, Russia and US Iran war Live, get all the latest headlines in one place on Hindustan Times.
