NEW DELHI: The gloves are off in the run up to the climate change meeting in Durban at the end of the year. The Europeans will not agree to a second phase of Kyoto Protocol unless emerging economies, such as India, give a date by which they will take on legally binding targets to cut emissions under an international deal. This is the third successive shift in the goalposts sinceCopenhagen which demand emerging economies to act even as the rich countries back off or dither from existing commitments.
The new European position was revealed for the first time when the European Union president, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, stated before the UN General Assembly that, "A balanced Durban package must include all major emitters and a clear roadmap and timeline towards a new, comprehensive, robust and legally binding framework. The EU is willing to consider a second commitment period - but only as part of a broader package...in which other major emitters also commit to doing their fair share."
TOI had reported the Europeans putting this new proposal in closed door talks earlier and this is the first time they have gone public with it. The US, sources told TOI, have also supported this shift inimical to India's interests, in the recently concluded meeting of the Major Economies Forum. The US has asked for a formula for 'developing countries' to graduate to the league that takes internationally binding targets along with the rich nations also to be discussed at Durban. This would completely break the principle of historical responsibility and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities as locked in the UN climate convention and the Bali declaration.
The move coming just days before the penultimate round of formal talks this year - in Panama - has angered the G77 + China group which sees this as one more step in a series by the rich countries to keep forcing the developing countries to act even as they fail to meet their own commitments.
"The US says it cannot commit any targets internationally and the Annex 1 countries have neither put the money nor their unconditional targets on the table but they now want the developing world to suggest a timeframe against which they shall be forced to take international targets," one senior non-Indian negotiator for G77 countries told TOI.
India and other developing countries bent backwards to sign the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancun Agreements which diluted their demands and gave more leverage to the developed countries. But the developed countries are yet to come true on their commitments on either finance, technology transfer or emission reduction targets.
