India against forcing developing countries to review their voluntary emission cuts: Warsaw Climate talks

Taking a stance in direct confrontation with the developed countries, India, China and other nations in the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group took the position formally that the new climate pact must not force developing countries to review their volunteered emission reduction targets. Furthermore, the LMDC made it clear that it was not in favour of eliminating the existing differentiation between developing and developed countries when it came to taking responsibility for climate action.

The ongoing climate talks at Warsaw are expected to bring out elements of the new climate agreement which is to be signed by 2015.

What is the issue of volunteering emission targets?

There is a general agreement that the new agreement would allow each country to volunteer their emission reduction targets. However, as per the EU suggestions which is also supported by other allied groups, there should be a process of reviewing targets of all countries and seeing if they collectively add up to the level that keeps global temperature rise below 2 degree Celsius. It further opines that any gap in meeting the target emission cuts should be distributed between all countries, rich or poor, based on several parameters which are often called the Equity Reference Framework. The U.S. is in favor of similar consultations but only ‘peer pressure’ and not compulsion to convince countries to do more in case the global target is not met.

Loopholes: Developing countries are skeptical that if review of volunteered emission targets is allowed then the developed countries may deliberately to offer lower targets initially and then get the responsibility of filling the ‘emission gap’ distributed evenly between all nations which, according to developing countries, goes against the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities based on historical responsibility.

Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) stance:

The LMDC is not in support of the Equity Reference Framework in its current form as the group finds that it redistributes the burden of fighting climate change more on the shoulders of the developing countries. The group noted that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under which the new agreement is to be signed requires developed countries to take the lead in fighting climate change and not the developing countries.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2013