With negotiations continuing to break the impasse between developed and developing countries at the ongoing COP 11 on the key issue of resource mobilisation to achieve biodiversity conservation targets by 2020, India on Monday expressed confidence that a consensus would be reached before the convention concludes on October 19 to send a strong political message across the globe.
While the developed nations sought fixing of robust baselines and reporting frameworks, the developing countries wanted setting of targets for achieving the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and Aichi Targets by 2020. The differences in the Working Group-2 led to the setting up of a contact group to hammer out a solution.
Spirit of give and take
Fielding a volley of questions at a press conference, M.F. Farooqui, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, indicated that all the 193 participating countries in the prestigious event were veering round to the view of having interim targets initially and developing a roadmap for the future. The discussions were moving forward in the right spirit with both sides willing to listen to each other.
Declining to indicate a figure on the resources to be mobilised, he said on the financial resources it was not important to look for numbers but the approach. He said biodiversity was omnipresent and nobody scientifically knew the extent of biodiversity. This was the challenge for achieving the Aichi targets.
Political impetus
He said significant progress had been made in the first week and four documents, including those on biofuels and incentive measures, were adopted. The three-day, high-level segment talks beginning Tuesday were expected to provide political impetus to the negotiations, he added.
He said that India was spending Rs. 11,000 crore annually on various biodiversity-related activities and more than 90 per of that was met from domestic resources.
Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, said “we are looking forward to very good results coming out from here.”
