Doha climate talks extended by a day

Business standard , Saturday, December 08, 2012
Correspondent : PTI
With several differences and concerns yet to be resolved, negotiators on Friday head for another night of diplomatic wrangling at the Doha climate talks, which have inevitably spilled over into an extra day.

The talks were scheduled to end on Friday but as much has been the tradition with successive Conferences of the Parties (COPs), this round, too, has stretched on to an extra day as the COP Presidency, as demanded by the parties, asked for another round of consultations on crucial issues of differences.

Climate financing, by far, has turned out to be one of the main sticking points at this COP as poor nations complain that large promises of money that made some of the last few climate talks workable have not materialised.

Another point of discord has been the unwillingness of the developed countries to announce any new emission reduction targets, even as they negotiate a future post-2020 deal that will bring all major polluters including India and China under some reduction obligations.

While climate activists called the drafts doing the rounds as very weak, developing countries complained there was utter lack of clarity on how the pledged finances are going to be achieved.

G77 plus China and other blocs like the Alliance of Small Island States and Least Developed Countries said they were dissatisfied by the lack of commitments being made on the climate financing issue as well as on the front of technology sharing.

India said though the talks had ensured that no issue would fall off the table, there were still some concerns that needed to be addressed and that it will take them up suitably.

India said the issue of finance, intellectual property rights-related technology transfer and unilateral measures to protect climate were issues it had concerns on.

By all standards the outcome of Doha is not expected to be spectacular as far as climate actions are concerned as neither have the industrialised countries increased their carbon emission reduction targets nor have they put forth substantial pledges to help poorer countries.

Any deal would effectively defer action for at least another year, something climate activists said they were deeply disappointed about.

“Irony is that as the world gets more certain of the effects of climate change, actions become more uncertain,” said leading environmentalist Sunita Narain, summing up the collective disgust of civil society activists.

 
SOURCE : http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/doha-climate-talks-extended-by-a-day-112120802011_1.html
 


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