India-led effort makes US bite dust on climate

Times of India , Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Correspondent : Nitin Sethi, TNN
NEW DELHI: The G77 won a big round at the UN climate negotiations that began on Monday at Bangkok with US backing down from its threat to block negotiations unless the line between industrialized countries and emerging economies is blurred. India played a leading role in the defensive surge of G77, which many have been claiming could fall apart sooner rather than later.

On Monday, the US attempted to hold the entire negotiations to ransom demanding that the emission reduction actions of developing countries and industrialized countries be considered on a similar platform or it would not engage in any further negotiations.

At present the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Bali Action Plan drawn up in 2007 by all member countries of the convention draw a clear distinction between the rich nations and the rest.

The rich are obliged under these compacts to undertake binding emission reduction commitments while the rest of the countries are asked to undertake actions that are backed by finance and technological support from the rich nations.

The US insisted a sub-group of member countries be established to work on a merged mitigation agenda for industrialized and developing countries. Australia, Japan, the EU and Norway, besides others supported such a move.

"The US basically was attempting to blur the different obligations that industrialized and other countries have under the existing compact," said Meena Raman, attending the conference for the Third World Network, a Malaysia-based think tank.

India rose to object immediately pointing out that the differentiation between the rich countries -- responsible for majority of the emissions till date -- and the rest was enshrined in the convention and reiterated by the Bali Action Plan of 2007 and the meeting could not take up any issue in contravention of the convention.

But in a move that has sent worrying signals back home in India, the US negotiators oddly used Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh's statement at a meeting in US to back their position. They said the Indian minister had suggested a broader interpretation of the Bali Action Plan, which allowed such blurring of lines between rich and emerging nations.

This got Indian negotiators up on their feet pointing that the US negotiators had no right to speak on behalf of an Indian minister and that India, at the formal negotiations, wanted complete adherence to the existing compacts.

At this point, key countries Brazil and China also joined in with other G77 countries backing them. China pointed out that the mandate of the negotiations is to only `enhance' the implementation of the existing convention and not rewrite it.

Sensing a logjam with the G77 unrelenting, the chair of the meeting asked the countries to informally sort out the matter. By Tuesday morning after the discussions and with the G77 sticking to its guns, the US backed off and two sub-groups of member countries were allowed to look separately at the rich nations' obligations and the actions of the rest of the member countries.

While the US stratagem has not played off for now, observers noted that it was not the last time industrialized countries would raise the issue over coming days.

A highly placed Indian official told TOI, "India shall not agree to any commitments except those placed on it by Parliament."

The controversy comes in the wake of recent suggestions by the Indian government at different forums on loosening its existing climate change negotiating position. While the suggestions from senior government representatives have emanated outside the domain of official UN negotiations, different parties have jumped at the shift to interpret it to their advantage.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/environment/global-warming/India-led-effort-makes-US-bite-dust-on-climate/articleshow/5070284.cms
 


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