GLOBAL PACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE - India Wants Climate Talks to Focus on Efforts Prior to 2020
Urmi Goswami
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New Delhi:
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Emphasises that onus to deal with global warming is more on developed countries
India wants a global agreement that will address intensified efforts to tackle climate change between 2015 and 2020 and has questioned the single-minded focus on finalising a global compact for the post-2020 period, which is to be inked in Paris in December.With barely nine months left for the crucial climate change meeting in Paris, the pressure on countries to draw plans to reduce the amount of carbon produced after 2020 has increased. New Delhi has told the UN climate change body that there needs to be equal focus on the pre-2020 period, arguing that without active efforts to tackle climate change between 2015 and 2020, slowing down the rate of global warming will be different. Sources said India has submitted a written request to the chairs of the negotiations being held under the aegis of the United Nations to consider an agreement that will spell out the efforts to reduce the amount of carbon being produced and to adjust to the impacts of climate change.
At the talks in Geneva in February, Indian negotiators had raised the issue that countries, especially the industrialised nations, need to do much more to address rising emissions and the impact of unchecked climate change between 2015 and 2020.
“We have given it in writing to the chairmen of the ad hoc working group on the Durban Platform.
In 2011, when countries decided to craft a new agreement to address climate change, it was also decided to accelerate efforts to tackle global warming in the period up to 2020.But now the discussions are solely focused on the post-2020 agree ment. The Durban Platform is both about the pre-2020 period and the post-2020 period,“ a senior member of the government said.
The Durban Platform agreed to in 2011 at the annual UN-sponsored climate change negotiations has two planks of action -accelerating and intensifying efforts to address climate change in the pre-2020 period and finalising the new global agreement by 2015, which would be implemented after 2020.
In the pre-2020 period, the onus of reducing the amount of carbon produced is on the industrialised countries, with developing countries taking steps on a voluntary basis. Industrialised countries are required to provide financial support, which was agreed in 2009 and 2010 to be to the tune of $100 billion a year, and were also committed to provide technology to developing countries to address climate change.India's demand has the broad support of developing countries. At Geneva, where negotiators from 193 countries met for a week to finalise a draft of the post-2020 global compact, representatives of countries including China, South Africa and other African countries and small islands consistently stressed on the need to focus on increasing the efforts being made to tackle climate change before 2020.
Developing countries have argued that the lack of attention to the pre-2020 efforts only serve to transfer the burden of action to poor countries.
The new agreement that comes into effect in 2020 is applicable to all countries, unlike the current regime, where the onus of action rests with the industrialised countries.
Scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change maintain that delayed action will prove to be more expensive and many of the efforts that can be taken to slow global warming will be ineffective if not implemented as soon as possible.
At the talks in Geneva in February, Indian negotiators had raised the issue that countries, especially the industrialised nations, need to do much more to address rising emissions and the impact of unchecked climate change between 2015 and 2020.
“We have given it in writing to the chairmen of the ad hoc working group on the Durban Platform.
In 2011, when countries decided to craft a new agreement to address climate change, it was also decided to accelerate efforts to tackle global warming in the period up to 2020.But now the discussions are solely focused on the post-2020 agree ment. The Durban Platform is both about the pre-2020 period and the post-2020 period,“ a senior member of the government said.
The Durban Platform agreed to in 2011 at the annual UN-sponsored climate change negotiations has two planks of action -accelerating and intensifying efforts to address climate change in the pre-2020 period and finalising the new global agreement by 2015, which would be implemented after 2020.
In the pre-2020 period, the onus of reducing the amount of carbon produced is on the industrialised countries, with developing countries taking steps on a voluntary basis. Industrialised countries are required to provide financial support, which was agreed in 2009 and 2010 to be to the tune of $100 billion a year, and were also committed to provide technology to developing countries to address climate change.India's demand has the broad support of developing countries. At Geneva, where negotiators from 193 countries met for a week to finalise a draft of the post-2020 global compact, representatives of countries including China, South Africa and other African countries and small islands consistently stressed on the need to focus on increasing the efforts being made to tackle climate change before 2020.
Developing countries have argued that the lack of attention to the pre-2020 efforts only serve to transfer the burden of action to poor countries.
The new agreement that comes into effect in 2020 is applicable to all countries, unlike the current regime, where the onus of action rests with the industrialised countries.
Scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change maintain that delayed action will prove to be more expensive and many of the efforts that can be taken to slow global warming will be ineffective if not implemented as soon as possible.
