The US today demanded “adequate transparency” from major developing countries on their national carbon emission reduction targets, saying this was a “key part of the agreement” being worked out.
As negotiations entered their ninth day, US Chief envoy on climate change, Todd Stern said key differences remained with major developing economies especially on the issues of monitoring, reporting and verification of actions taken at the national level though some progress had been made.
India, China and other developing countries have ruled out the possibility of international monitoring of their domestic actions.
“The need in our view (is) of major developing countries to set forth their intended actions on this agreement and to indicate their resolve to implement them,” Mr. Stern said. “That is a key part to the agreement. That is, major developing countries, not everybody,” he told journalists here.
India’s position is that only the action supported by finances and technology from the developed countries will be up for international scrutiny while all unsupported action will only be assessed by the parliament.
It will also be posted through a national communication to the UN perhaps every two years for “information” purposes only, India has said.
Mr. Stern, however, said: “There are legitimate concerns that people have about how the process runs about transparency and inclusiveness”.
With both the developed countries, particularly the US and the developing nations sticking to their stands, the chances of an agreement appear to be receding.
Mr. Stern also commented on the brief suspension of talks yesterday following a walkout by the BASIC bloc and African countries, cautioning that the “any time lost is unhelpful. The clock is ticking,” he said.
“Having said that, it’s really important that countries focus on the essentials, focus on the pragmatic and focus on getting this done. The process can become your enemy if there is insistence on discussing and going around the process too much are real costs,” he added.
Despite over a week of negotiations the US, European Union and other developed countries do not accept the “information” only stand.
“The implementation of action by developing countries that they do set forth in their plan needs to have adequate transparency,” Mr. Stern said, noting the informal ministerial meeting had been useful in clarifying the divergent positions but “there are still differences there”.
Differences persist in other areas as well. India made it clear that all texts musts be completed by Wednesday night or Thursday morning because it does not want the heads of state negotiating the text.
“Our prime minister is not coming here to negotiate a text,” Union Minister Jairam Ramesh has previously stated. The US has taken a similar position but is not opposed to the idea of allowing the world leaders to make some decisions.
