G77 takes on West on climate change
Developing countries have taken on the developed nations for diverting the process of negotiations away from UNFCCC framework and Bali Action Plan. In the ongoing Barcelona talks, the G77 and China grouping launched a counter offensive against the attempt to hoist a GHG emission reduction regime on developing countries.
New Delhi: The Barcelona talks on climate change saw further fireworks with the chairperson of one of the two parallel tracks of the negotiations coming under fire from G77 countries, including India, for directing the process away from the ambit of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Bali Action Plan, which differentiates between rich countries and the rest.
- Barcelona climate talks/ Photo credit: Triplepundit
The Indian delegation warned that the proposals being made by the chairperson and industrialised countries did away with distinctions between developed and developing countries and imposed new commitments on developing countries.
India also strongly disagreed with US on the suggestion that areas of disagreement on crucial issues of a long-term agreement on climate change be sent to respective ministers to decide.
India pointed out that it was not mere divergence of viewpoints but the fact that US and others were asking for a deal which fell out of the rules of the UN convention.
Even as the African countries on Tuesday night accepted a temporary truce on the Kyoto Protocol track of negotiations, the G77 and China grouping led a powerful counter offensive against the attempt to hoist a greenhouse gas emission reduction regime on developing countries similar to the one right now in place for industrialised countries.
The UN negotiations on climate are running on two parallel tracks. One of the tracks, referred to as Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperation, is meant to hammer out a deal on mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology in the long run.
The other set of negotiations, called the Ad-hoc Working Group on Kyoto Protocol, is meant to discuss targets for emission reductions by industrialised countries under the protocol starting 2012 besides other issues.
Earlier, the African countries had boycotted all talks under Kyoto track unless the industrialised countries put up firm numbers for mitigation.
Tuesday brought the talks in long-term cooperation negotiations also to a near stalemate with the G77 insinuating that the chairperson of the talks was biasing the discussions in favour of industrialised countries.
The chairperson, Michael Zammit Cutajar of Malta, had prepared a note for the Barcelona meet which suggested that countries focus on the discussions on a shared vision leading up to a political commitment, instead of a comprehensive agreement at Copenhagen in December.
His note and the other documents that washed over the differences between the commitments of the developed countries and the rights of the developing world came under fire at Barcelona and promised to raise more controversy over the next couple of days.
