THE STATE OF THE EARTH: THE PHILIPPINES

A human skull, one of dozens found in a destroyed public cemetery, is displayed atop a tomb in Hernani town, central Philippines, on Monday, after the graves were swept away by Super Typhoon Haiyan. (AFP)

THE UNITED STATES

A vehicle sits on a pile of debris from the destruction caused by a tornado that touched down in Illinois on Sunday. (Reuters)

INDONESIA

A man uses his cellphone against the backdrop of an erupting Mount Sinabung on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Monday. More than 5,000 people have fled their homes since the volcano erupted early this month. (AFP)

Warsaw, Nov. 18: India has taken a middle path between rich and poor nations on the subject of developing countries being compensated for losses from climate change, attracting the label of “spoilsport” from non-profit organisations at a global climate conference here.

Like the poorer countries led by the G77 and China, India wants an independent mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to oversee “loss and damage” caused by climate change.

But unlike the poorer countries which want a dedicated fund for the compensation, New Delhi has echoed the US-led lobby to say the funding should remain under the UNFCCC’s Green Climate Fund (GCF), the lead Indian negotiator said.

The developed nations want both monitoring and funding to stay under the existing mechanism, which relates to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, rather than compensation for losses. They fear that an independent mechanism would increase the focus on losses, opening a Pandora’s box.

“We support the demand for a separate institutional mechanism to oversee the loss and damage part, but want the money to be under GCF,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, joint secretary in the environment and forests ministry and the leader of the Indian delegation, told The Telegraph.

However, the GCF funds (for mitigation and adaptation) are fixed: the sum was $30 billion a year for 2010-12 and will rise to a ceiling of $100 billion a year by 2020.

“Loss and damage is about already incurred damage and is hence beyond adaptation —if it comes under the adaptation fund, it will have to compete for the same $100 billion,” Harjeet Singh of Action Aid said in Warsaw.

“Strangely, India’s position is akin to that of the developed countries.”

Prasad, however, argued that creating an independent fund would take a lot of time, and said the GCF limit could be “reworked”.

Warsaw is hosting the nineteenth conference of parties on climate change, being attended by ministers and delegates from close to 200 countries. The issue of loss and damage has become a key point of discussion here after Super Typhoon Haiyan killed thousands in the Philippines this month.

Major non-profit organisations have accused India of not only being a spoilsport but also of failing to raise the topic of the two disasters the country faced recently: the Uttarakhand floods and Cyclone Phailin.

“It’s a pity that the Indian negotiating team has so far failed even to raise the recent disasters, forget about asking for compensation under ‘loss and damage’,” said Chandra Bhusan, climate expert from the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment.

Prasad said: “It’s not that we are not raising Phailin and Uttarakhand, but the Philippines disaster has got attention as it happened recently.”