Copenhagen, December 19: A U.S.-brokered deal with four emerging economies, including India, on climate change that places no legally-binding emission cuts on developed nations ran into rough weather on Saturday with a majority of poor countries rejecting it, saying that it was one-sided.
The deal between the U.S. and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) bloc is apparently a gain for developed countries which are required under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to take legally-binding emission cuts.
The Protocol expires on 2012 and the 194-nation Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations here has apparently failed to get a word on its extension.
Indian negotiators — Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Climate Shyam Saran — themselves acknowledged the fact that the deal is not done until it is approved by the plenary. However, Mr. Ramesh claimed that it was “a good deal.”
“Right now we have a document that says that we continue with negotiations on what to do about the future, including the Bali Action Plan and Kyoto Protocol,” Mr. Saran said.
Angry delegates of many countries like Tuvalu, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Cuba slammed the US—BASIC deal for showing them great “disrespect” by leaving them out of the drafting process and imposing their document on vast majority.
Cuban delegates said that US President Barack Obama, who brokered the U.S.-BASIC deal, was “behaving like an emperor” and claimed that the draft was a “gross violation of principle of sovereign equality.”
Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping compared the deal to the “Holocaust.”
“This document cannot be accepted for adoption by the parties present here,” said delegates from Costa Rica, adding that there was an absence of a legally-binding treaty.
Key elements of the ‘accord’
The final draft contains elements like a limit of 2 degrees in temperature rise on the basis of equity, peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible, factoring in overriding priorities of poverty for developing nations.
It calls on Annexe I parties or industrialised nations to set their emission targets by February 2010 and also asks the developing countries to do the same.
In the contentious area of Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MVR), it provides that unsupported actions could be subject to assessment only by domestic institutions but adds a new provision for international consultations and analysis without impinging on national sovereignty.
On the finance side, it provides $100 billion for long-term funding for developing countries and $ 30 billion for short-term, which would go to the poorest and most vulnerable.
“The Chinese Premier (Wen Jiabao) took the lead in finding a compromise, and our Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh), President Lula (Da Silva of Brazil) and President (Jacob) Zuma (of South Africa) also participated,” Mr. Ramesh said.
The four leaders, after holding their own discussions, approached Mr. Obama, who was not only negotiating on behalf of the U.S. but was also acting as a mediator between Europe and the BASIC, he said. “Whatever the deal India has got is on behalf of the four (BASIC) countries.”
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who hosted the conference, said the convention appears to lack consensus, meaning the document cannot be adopted. The debate continued into the early morning hours in Saturday.
–Agencies