Diplomacy for climate order

The Asian Age , Sunday, October 04, 2009
Correspondent : RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN / NEW DELHI
PRESIDENT MOHAMED Nasheed of Maldives plans to hold an underwater Cabinet meeting on October 24, the day after he returns home from a two-day climate change conference in New Delhi. Clad in scuba gear, President Nasheed and his Cabinet colleagues are expected to issue a statement calling upon the international community to act unitedly and decisively in the December 7 to 18 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. For the Maldives, an archipelago of 1,200 tropical islands only a few metres above sea level, climate change is no vague irritation but a danger to its physical survival.

According to a report, Maldives is exploring the possibility of purchasing land in India, Sri Lanka, and Australia in order to move its citizens to safety.

For Maldives, climate change is a crucial national security matter. Its diplomats need to be in the forefront to grapple with the issue internationally. But since no country is immune to the consequences of climate change, all countries engage in diplomacy to get the best deal for themselves in creating a new world climate order that would seek to push back the production of greenhouse gases that threaten the planet through their impact on natural resources. Since this is to be done through the use of non-fossil fuels for economic development, and new technology which need the injection of very considerable funds, diplomats have to be to the fore to argue the case in world forums.

India, among the developing countries, is pretty much at the centre of the international debate. Along with China, it leads the world in the speed of economic growth, and is only among a small number of developing countries that have an active industrial sector. As such, it feels the heat of Western politics on accepting conditions for climate mitigation that have serious implications for its growth, and trading regimes.

India’s vulnerability on account of climate change, through marked changes in rainfall patterns-causing droughts, flooding, and extreme weather conditions — and the implications of this on agriculture and livelihood security — can hardly be ignored. Migration, within the country and from India’s neighbourhood, and issues such as river waters and pandemics, will also pose challenges. Dealing with these require political will and diplomatic dexterity. Who knows, maybe climate change will succeed where diplomats of India and Pakistan have failed in resolving the Siachen glacier issue.

There are other foreign policy implications as well of climate change, to which external affairs minister S.M. Krishna drew attention at the plenary of the UN Climate Change Summit plenary in New York on September 22. If India and the clutch of rapidly industrialising countries continue in their refusal not to accept formal commitments and obligations, as the West needs to do, to sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions, the powerful industrialised economies could well threaten to impose penalties on them by penalising their imports. This will be a protectionist trade measure through, but hiding behind climate change. Our diplomats will need to counter such a move through alliance building with various countries, and by offering cogent arguments that are hard to resist.

Recently, vice-president Hamid Ansari, a retired professional diplomat, said at a recent New Delhi conference that the lack of a global agreement on an equitable formula to fight climate change could cause the climate change negotiations to spill over to other multilateral, regional, and bilateral negotiating platforms, further accentuating existing divisions such as north-south, east-west, and developed-developing countries.

India is working in close coordination with the Group of 77 (G-77), China, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico in climate talks, although its bilateral relations with China are not irritation-free.

 
SOURCE : http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news/india/diplomacy-for-climate-order.aspx
 


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