India objects to inclusion of UN, INGOs' partisan reports in climate change talks

The Hindu , Sunday, May 06, 2012
Correspondent :
NEW DELHI: Miffed with the way some UN and other international organizations have played a partisan role in climate change negotiations, India has demanded that their reports and studies should not be accepted as part of these deliberations.

Domestically, it has refused the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) request to become an official partner to its study on the cost-benefit analysis of taking different actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision against ADB's proposal on 'mitigation studies' is not the first time that the government has taken such a step on offers from international organizations and funding agencies. "The method that ADB was using was such that it would seem all emission reduction actions are purely beneficial in terms of economics," an official told TOI.

Earlier, India had fought a silent battle at international climate negotiations to point out that the Bridging the Emissions Gap report, presented by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was a clever presentation of data showing the gap between what the world had committed to reduce emissions and how much more needed to be done to remain within relatively safer levels of global warming. Scholars from the Stockholm Institute of Environment, using the data that UNEP had collected but not highlighted, showed that the developing countries had committed to greater emission reductions than the rich nations.

"It's not that the data is wrong in these reports, but what answers one is looking at. If the reports are part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change like the IPCC report, they are informed by the needs of all countries and not guided by politics and interests of the few," an official said.

In one of the most prominent such cases, the government had taken the UNDP to task in 2007 for presenting a report that had discarded the notion of fair-burden sharing while apportioning responsibility to reduce global emissions.

If the report is based on the premise of fair burden-sharing formula, the solutions it would throw up like which country should do what are bound to be at odds with dumping the responsibility for historical emissions and only looking at the remaining atmospheric space.

"Now, equity has been accepted by even groupings like US-led Major Economies Forum that had refused to entertain it so far. An equitable decision on how countries share emission reductions to remain within safe limits is back on the table after Durban talks, and studies or institutions that do not make this as a basis of their research are playing a partial role at these meetings," another official noted.

So far, these external reports were used more for rhetorical discourses and building public pressure outside the negotiation forums. With the EU and Association of Small Island States, which ally closely with the Europeans, demanding that reports from outside the negotiation process too be taken into consideration while firming up greater commitments for all, India has formally objected to such a move.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/India-objects-to-inclusion-of-UN-INGOs-partisan-reports-in-climate-change-talks/articleshow/13014998.cms
 


Back to pevious page



The NetworkAbout Us  |  Our Partners  |  Concepts   
Resources :  Databases  |  Publications  |  Media Guide  |  Suggested Links
Happenings :  News  |  Events  |  Opinion Polls  |  Case Studies
Contact :  Guest Book  |  FAQs |  Email Us