US, EU differ on future climate change negotiations

A week after the resumption of this year’s biggest climate negotiations, differences have emerged between the US and the European Union on the approach for future talks.

Updated on: Jun 8, 2010, 24:25:41 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Bonn

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A week after the resumption of this year’s biggest climate negotiations, differences have emerged between the US and the European Union on the approach for future talks.

Till recently, the two had been backing each other for not extending Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period beyond 2012.

At Bonn, however, US officials appear to have softened their stand on Kyoto Protocol, saying they don’t mind it being discussed. “US is not a signatory to Kyoto and, therefore, any discussion on it does not matter to it,” said an Indian negotiator, participating at the 185-nation conference, biggest after the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009.

The European Union, on the other hand, says there is no future for Kyoto Protocol and wants to discuss the new climate agreement where some responsibility is defined for all nations. The view is opposed by developing nations represented by G-77 plus China.

The Copenhagen summit had struggled to overcome suspicions on sharing a global effort to curb greenhouse gases.

At Bonn, things don’t seem different. Differences resurfaced on Monday when Latin American nations, the US and South Africa said they could not launch negotiations on the basis of a text published in mid-May, which outlines a range of options for fighting climate change.

Chief South African delegate Alf Wills said the document put too much burden on developing nations, devoting a whole chapter to emissions curbs by the South but not the North. “It’s completely unbalanced in that respect,” he said.

Other major economies — India and China — have backed South African view.

However, Karsten Sach, leader of Germany’s delegation, said: “We think it is a basis for negotiation.”

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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