In any reasonable reckoning, the outcome of the 17th meeting of the Committee of Parties (COP) of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change at Durban was a triumph for European climate diplomacy, placing it firmly once again in the position of a global climate leader. In the run-up to Durban, Europe had offered to support a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol in exchange for a “road map” that would point the way towards a legally binding agreement on mitigating global warming that would involve all parties. Precisely that agenda was realised with the establishment of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action — which is charged with producing, by 2015, a suitably ambitious “protocol, legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force,” to enter into force by 2020. In exchange, a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol is now on board, even if its exact duration and the extent of commitment of the developed countries remain to be negotiated in the coming year. At Durban, the European Union succeeded in putting together a substantial coalition, including the small island states, the least developed and some other developing countries, and the emerging economies of Brazil and South Africa, behind a climate agenda that is, in scientific terms, unambitious in its mitigation goals and clearly aimed at passing the climate burden on to the large developing countries.
It is clear that India was unprepared for the groundswell of support for a compact to deliver a global climate agreement binding on all nations. The Manmohan Singh government, egged on to intransigence by significant sections of civil society, sent a delegation that had no positive mandate, alienating it from all those countries whose interests lie in an early climate agreement. India, together with China, which was supportive of India throughout the meeting, was more or less isolated. The strategic mishandling of Durban is evident from the fact that after opposing for two weeks the very idea of an ‘agreement to have an agreement,' India finally assented to the Durban Platform without even the token inclusion of any of its core concerns such as equity. Repeated references to the principle without any attempt to put more flesh and bones on it made India appear more of a querulous holdout than a champion of developing country concerns. New Delhi has its work cut out in preparing for the tough negotiations due to commence next year. It needs to make up the ground ceded at COP 17. At a more fundamental level, it is high time the government realised that the interests of the 1.2 billion people that it so frequently invokes at climate negotiations lie as much in an early climate agreement as in adequate access to global atmospheric space, and grasped the complexity of translating this into negotiating realities.
Keywords: Climate Change, Durban Climate summit, Kyoto Protocol
Frankly speaking, India is in no position to afford the outcome of such diplomatic blaming games, organised by the Big Bosses who are self-styled protector of the world. Still it will have to adhere to the sticks. Only verbose speech with so much rhetoric and prosody will not suffice. Telling the truth will not do until it is not backed by tremendous power. India must know that alliance is the sole power to win the game. It was simply accidental that a few nations patted our back but we never tried hard enough to convince or force ( in some cases) them to stick to our policy on climate change. Enemies are are not necessarily always enemies as friends are not always friends. Simply, India never had or has or never will have the suitable strategies to tackle situations like this. Of course the govt has the excuse that they are struggling for existence which i guess will not hold water. Apparently Natarajan failed to dance like Nataraja and stumbled trying in vain to rock the world.
India and China can't gang up together and expect the rest of the world to put up with their intransigence for much longer. This was amply evident at Durban when the AOSIS and LDC group of countries sided with the EU, which assumed a leadership role admirably. If we're not ready for a legally binding treaty/agreement yet, when will we ever be. Also Jairam Ramesh was no more flexible than Jayanthi Natarajan, and I mean this in a bad way. I remember Jairam Ramesh taking great pains to convey to the parliament that he wasn't going to agree to anything legally binding. This has always been the stance of the UPA govt. Clearly that has to change and India together with China have to yield before it's too late.
Meeting the demands of the growing population has resulted in depletion of our natural wealth. It is very unfortunate to see that the most populous countries of the world are not much interested in cutting down emissions.
Reportedly Canada has withdrawn from the Kyoto protocol...
If floating ice melts, the level of water falls. So if floating arctic
ice cap melts there will be no rise of sea level. If the ice on
Antarctica and Greenland melts, then humans can colonise Antarctica
and Greenland whether or not sea levels rise. Global warming by CO2 is
a fallacious theory by scientists requiring more funds for their
survival. Mr.Rajendra Pachauri, Chairperson of IPCC, admitted a
glaring mistake on Himalyan glaciers melting by 2035. Europe must
become vegetarian and stop hunting whales, if they are serious about
global warming. Ninety percent of Indians are vegetarian. The world
must stop using oil driven cars and start using electric cars. These
measures are more important than any binding contracts done to prevent
so-called climate change. Dubai has built islands in the ocean like
Palm tree project by using rocks and sand with help of European
companies, where celebrities are supposed to live. Don’t they
understand global warming ?
People and industries talk about green, not knowing what it means to environment. Industries take full page advertisement on newspapers how they protect the environment. Three decades ago one paper company advertised on TV that they are "tree growing" company, not telling the viewers that they cut a very large number of trees for producing paper products. India should ban polyethelene bags as major corporations and cities burn them along with trash on their streets. Rivers are polluted with effluent from dyeing and tanning industries. India failed to develop infrastructure before producing millions two, three and four wheelers on the road. Idling cars produce more carbon than the industries. Agriculture lands were converted into industries and townships. States compete each other to bring in industries to provide jobs for their people, not realizing the farm sector is slowly vanishing. In a country of one billion plus people, farm labour is hard to find.
And Canada today pulled out of the Kyoto agreement... this editroial is so off the mark it is laughable. India and China are right to stall 'binding' measures that will be used to browbeat them. EU and North America must foot the bill, else no cigar. The whole thing is a scam of epic proportions.
This government again let down the 1 billion people of india..they
have developed their nations in last 2-3 centuries but india's growth
story is only of two decades now a legally binding cut of emission
will certainly compromised our growth potential and India will a
developing country for ever...
The climate issue is controversial and all the stakeholders have to think from a common good perspective.If like India, all other nations start consolidating their diplomatic positions on specific issues,The world will not be able to see concrete,integrated and legally binding climate act.The issue should not be seen from political or diplomatic sense.We all have seen in the last 15 years when Kyoto protocol was first proposed,little has been achieved in terms of actions.The world cannot resolve the climate issue with mere self regulation.Unless and until a strong framework of legally binding pact is not applied to countries,no one is going to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases.Climate changes are irreversible and individual countries cannot dilly-dally on this pertinent issue.
It is shameful that we, as a nation, are good enough only to compromise our stand with other ones!
I think the Editorial is fairly accurate in its assessment. Some ground was lost because our fundamental concerns were not recorded as a necessary part of the next stage. They have to be reasserted. But more importantly (IMHO) India needs to start taking a pro-active, innovative, leadership role in climate negotiations. We need to hold separate talks with our 'climate allies' and formulate our own policy options to present to EU countries. So far it looks like we're just avoiding the issue, and that's what the western media is using against us.
This was inevitable. India and China are the two worst culprits (alongewith the USA) contributing to global warming by way of unrestrained burning of fossil fuel. This is a harsh reality, but one has to accept it and find remedial measures. Sooner or lster, we will have to be subjected to global regulations and the plea of being a developing nation can't exempt us in this regard. What is surprising is that the activists like Medha Patkar who raise hue and cry against any hydel power generation project, choose to remain silent about fossil-fuel power generation, which is hugely responsible for Green Gas House emissions.
Climate change is no ordinary issue. Its implications will affect the generations to come, i am not ruling out the gravity of the issue of economic crisis, but there is always a turnaround for that as it is evident in the past (read Great Depression). But the same cannot be said about Climate Change, it is something we cannot control. Legally binding emission cuts or self regulating emission cuts, we have to focus on the problem at hand. India may have lost ground at Durban regarding this, but that doesnt make it any better for Climate Change, the problem is still there like an elephant in the room. What India should now do is enact policies which are greener, promote alternate sources of energy and scale up its power infrastructure and slowly move towards a energy sufficient economy. I like the yesterday's issue of the Hindu, it was dedicated to the power situation of India.
*The 17th. meeting by COP on Climate-change is a 'road-map' with 'road-ahead' & how can 'Adhoc-Working-Groups' take important decisions with a aim to pass the climate burden on developing n under-developed nations...??? *India goes unprepared for a simple reason, we have 1,18,000 hectare of de-forested land which awaits aforestation n forest-covers for which Rs47,000 Crores have been allocated but, this involves all the States n U.T's in our country to stand united ...! *Make it mandatory for every small to large scale Enterprises that 'Environment' clearance is a must n that 10times the size of new-projects, land have to be converted into FORESTS ...!! *If there are actions on the ground, only then one can prepare a ground to suggest 'road-maps' to all those participating in the meet, vague-replies would 'boomrang' back on us if we fail to address issues concerning 'Global-Warming' ...!!!
Excellent piece. It is high time India realized that it needs to take a concrete position. While equity should be at the focal point of any new deal, India should not lose sight of the fact that we need a deal on climate change to protect those 1.2 billion people from irreversible impacts of temperature increase. Jairam Ramesh seemed more 'flexible', but it is necessary to remember for what it was worth, he was not just talk. He made sure that equity was included in the Cancun declaration. The new minister on the contrary seems inflexible in her speech and then allows a declaration which has no mention of equity!
It is time that India realized that developmental goals are not incompatible with Climate agreement. It has act as a leader and role model in championing the protection of environment and demand the developed countries to do their bit in curbing the pollution.
The world is "too too big to fail" but the "Durban Platform" turned out to be a bailout of the developed countries by the developing countries . This brinkmanship of putting the world into a panic button mode and asking for binding agreement is akin to blackmail. The leadership of EU was commendable but the pressure was on the wrong party. India stood for a just principle but could not argue properly; India was not necessarily objecting to a legally binding treaty as was evident finally rather the Indian side was amenable to a treaty conditional upon inclusion of equity and CBDR into the roadmap but the way we articulated it or the western media portrayed it in such a manner that was unsavory, to say the least. Apart from that we did not do our homework to provide a credible alternative roadmap that could have deflected EU pressure and cornered US and its likes as the biggest obstacle to any agreement. The whole world is held hostage, on climate change, by the American right wing.
If unqualified people are made Ministers and sent for these confabulations we can not expect anything better.Our politicians are too busy making money on the sude that they are unable to be effective for the nation's good.
"Am I am going to sign a blind cheque that would decide the future of 1.2 billion Indians" as argued by the Indian diplomat has gone to finally be signed. Sad times.
Climate change affects India very significantly. More than 80% of India's rivers are rain fed. If the monsoon rains are not adequate or well distributed from June to October, and from October to December in the south, our farmers will suffer. India needs to recognize the engine of its economic growth, which is expansion of the industrial and services sector, is not going to lift the millions out of poverty in rural areas. By anchoring its position on climate change based on the interests of the industrial sector, it has pledged away the interests of the rural poor. And ultimately India needs all segments to grow for it to prosper.
The Editorial is on expected lines reflects ordinary Indian mind but Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has done a commendable job in the end meticulously without putting nation into embarassment. India is not an example or ideal state for world to follow as far as environment is concerned and one can easily perceive seeing its roads,rail,rivers stinking and filled with filth causing health hazards leave alone industrial and other pollutions. State PCBs can give enough reasons for their failure.Also it is appropriate for us to take a defensive stance in view of present political scenario where there is no unision on any subject.Let us therefore have more introspection and move forward.
Please Email the Editor