NEW DELHI: As the BASIC nations stick to equity as a basis for future talks, former chief climate negotiator Shyam Saran expressed doubts over the fate of Kyoto Protocol which seeks binding emission cut targets for developed nations.
"There are dangers that we are trying to fight such as green protection by the developed nations which are attempting to impose tariffs on the goods from the developing countries.
"But what we have to watch out is that whether the Kyoto Protocol will continue after 2010," Saran said at a national conference on Climate Change organised by the All India Management Association (AIMA) here.
He was of the view that its expiry would pave way to a scenario where each country will devise their own market system. "For instance, if the US comes out with the Climate Change Bill allowing it to have its national offset market, such move may become political-oriented," he said.
Basic group comprising of India, Brazil, South Africa and China had recently asserted that any deal must include an accord on quantified emission reduction targets under a second commitment period for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol.
Saran was also critical of the developed nations' failure to meet the targets specified in the Protocol. "They, as a whole, should have reduced their overall emission by approximately six per cent compared to 1990 level..."
Stating that rich nations are reluctant to share technology and funds to developing countries, the former special envoy to the Prime Minister on Climate Change ruled out any positive outcome in the future.
"The developed nations because of the financial crisis and due to a sense of competitive threat from countries like China and India, so called emerging economies, fear that any kind of technology transfer would strengthen their economy," he said.
"So rather than thinking in terms of any transfer of technologies to these countries, there is a thinking (among the developed nations) that how market opportunities for their technologies can be created in the developing countries," Saran said.
"In this backdrop this is something which will continue in the post Copenhagen phase and how do we reconcile what we have in terms of a legal treaty which recognises this differentiation and a current situation where the developed countries in particular US are simply not willing to accept that there can be anything but a reciprocal arrangement."
Besides addressing a wide-ranging international and multilateral issues regarding Climate Change, Saran also talked about the domestic issues and expressed hope for a rapid expansion of nuclear power.
