BackLeaders may have no deal to sign at Copenhagen
Leaders may have no deal to sign at Copenhagen
PremiumDead end? Environment minister Jairam Ramesh. Credit Line
Copenhagen: As negotiations to save the planet from overheating dissolved in intense bickering on Wednesday between the rich and poor, the European Union made a last-gasp €100 billion (Rs6.8 trillion) payout to the poorest, mainly African, nations.
The announcement is unlikely to please India and China, which earlier in the day led a protest against a Danish move to leave the final text to be adopted on 18 December to 103 heads of state.
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“There is no transparency in the entire procedure," said India’s environment secretary Vijai Sharma, in one of his three interventions at a plenary on Wednesday.
He was joined by envoys from China, Bolivia and the Group of 77 (G-77), a bloc of 133 developing countries.
They were all protesting a three-page Danish document that wanted negotiators to skip discussions and leave a final decision to heads of state over Thursday and Friday.
“All issues will be discussed at a meeting of parties," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen finally pleaded. “Please allow the process to move forward."
Sharma alleged an attempt to bring in a final text without discussing the drafts of two working groups on long-term cooperative action (LAC) to fight climate change (by 2050) and on the Kyoto Protocol, a so-called two-track approach that has itself been criticized for being vague.
Instead of signing on the dotted line of a watered-down political agreement, the heads of state are in danger of having nothing to sign, despite an all-night, last-ditch, 10-hour meeting of negotiators.
“If we do not come to an agreement within the next 48 hours, I am afraid we may be doomed," said Mohamad Nasheed, president of the Maldives, as other heads of island nations too spoke of a similar possibility.
Till late Wednesday, drafts on LAC—a document that hopes to bring the US on board by agreeing to an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, which the poorer countries say is non-negotiable—kept tumbling out, as envoys made frantic last-minute attempts to salvage something for their leaders.
Diplomats, who have seen the Danish draft—it was shown to 40 countries—said it was similar to an earlier Danish proposal shown to the Group of Eight nations last week.
Wednesday’s Danish draft included a peaking year for emissions for all countries and urged emission-reduction targets for emerging economies. The new draft dropped the reference to a peak year for global emissions without specifying a year unlike last week’s draft.
In what will only further escalate allegations of back room deals, the draft was apparently shown to the BASIC countries (India, China, Brazil and South Africa) and G-77 nations. “I haven’t seen the draft," said environment minister Jairam Ramesh.
The Danish move appeared to be an attempt to include non-controversial portions in the LAC and Kyoto Protocol drafts, leaving out contentious portions.
On the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the Danes apparently told BASIC envoys that the Kyoto Protocol should not be retained beyond 2012.
At a 10-hour meeting that ended on Wednesday morning, there was also no consensus on emission targets for rich countries and a base year from which to calculate these targets. The US and Australia want 2005 as base year, the rest want 1990.
Later in the day, at a high-level plenary, Ramesh presented India’s actions on climate-change mitigation and adaptation.
He said India’s forests and carbon credit projects will neutralize 20% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. India is the world’s fourth largest carbon emitter.
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