Poor countries reject US-emerging economies deal on climate change

A US-brokered deal with four emerging economies, including India, on climate change that places no legally-binding emission cuts on developed countries ran into rough weather today with a majority of poor countries rejecting it, saying that it was one-sided.

The deal between the US and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) bloc is apparently a gain for develop countries which are required under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to take legally binding emission cuts.

The Protocol expires on 2012 and the 194-nation Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations here has apparently failed to get a word on its extension. Indian negotiators -- environment minister Jairam Ramesh and prime minister's Special Envoy on Climate Shyam Saran -- themselves acknowledged the fact that the deal is not done until it is approved by the plenary. However, Ramesh claimed that it was "a good deal."

"Right now we have a document that says that we continue with negotiations on what to do about the future, including the Bali Action Plan and Kyoto Protocol," Saran said.

Angry delegates of many countries like Tuvalu, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Cuba slammed the US-BASIC deal for showing them great "disrespect" by leaving them out of the drafting process and imposing their document on vast majority.

Cuban delegates said that US President Barack Obama, who brokered the US-BASIC deal, was "behaving like an emperor" and claimed that the draft was a "gross violation principle of sovereign equality." Sudanese delegate Lumumba Di-Aping compared the deal to the "Holocaust."

"This document cannot be accepted for adoption by the parties present here," said delegates from Costa Rica, adding that there was an absence of a legally-binding treaty.

The final draft contains elements like a limit of 2 degrees in temperature rise on the basis of equity, peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible, factoring in overriding priorities of poverty for developing nations.

It calls on Annex I parties or industrialised nations to set their emission targets by February 2010 and also asks the developing countries to do the same.

In the contentious area of Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MVR), it provides that unsupported actions could be subject to assessment only by domestic institutions but adds a new provision for international consultations and analysis without impinging on national sovereignty.

On the finance side, it provides $100 billion for long-term funding for developing countries and $30 billion for short-term, which would go to the poorest and most vulnerable.

"The Chinese premier (Wen Jiabao) took the lead in finding a compromise, and our prime minister (Manmohan Singh), President Lula (Da Silva of Brazil) and president (Jacob) Zuma (of South Africa) also participated," Ramesh said.

The four leaders, after holding their own discussions, approached Obama, who was not only negotiating on behalf of the US but was also acting as a mediator between Europe and the BASIC, he said. "Whatever the deal India has got is on behalf of the four (BASIC) countries."

However, Ramesh said they had a draft Copenhagen outcome which had been substantially approved by "this smaller group". "Now this goes to the plenary, the plenary has to approve. There are still some differences of opinion. China and Small Island States are battling it out."

During the 60-minute meeting between Obama and BASIC leaders, the US President was very appreciative of the nilateral measures India was taking.

"Prime minister Manmohan Singh also said that there was no question of making our unilateral commitments internationally legally binding, we will reflect them in an international agreement in a suitable way but we are not going to take any internationally legally binding commitments. That is simply not on the cards," Ramesh noted, adding Obama appreciated Singh's statement.

During the meeting, the Minister said, "unfortunately" British prime minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not seem appreciative of India's point of view. "At a couple of moments, there were sharp exchanges between me and President Sarkozy," he told a news channel, adding the Indian side also had some problem with Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.

However, he said, after the meeting these leaders said they respected Singh and knew what a "great prime minister he is and what good job India is doing."

Ramesh said that the Indian side "had very fruitful discussions with Obama" and that "India has a good deal." At the climate meet, delegates from Tuvalu suggested that rich countries wanted to buy the poor countries' vote by promises of aid. "For 30 pieces of silver we cannot betray our own people. Our future is not for sale."

Bolivia said that giving parties one hour to decide on the US-BASIC deal was "disrespectful" and that it ignored two years of work on the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan. Nicaragua said the process of forging the draft, which was led by the US, lacked "legitimacy", "transparency," and "democratic participation."

The agreement could only be arrived "at open, transparent and legitimate process and adopted by consensus in the working group," its delegate said, while placing two proposals in front of all delegates to suspend COP 15 meet here and pursue work under the Kyoto Protocol and Bali Action Plan expeditiously in further meetings.

Indian officials noted that the US-brokered deal had addressed India's concerns adequately, although some improvements could be made. "The red lines have been met," Saran said, noting that India did not have to compromise on any of its fundamental stands on the issue.  

"What we said was that with regard to supported (climate) actions, that is those actions for which we are receiving financial resources or we are receiving technology, with respect to those actions, we have no difficulty with international scrutiny, including reporting measurement, verification," Saran said.     

But, as far as India's "unsupported" or voluntary actions are concerned, it is ready to report them as part and parcel of its national communication to the UN Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCC). "It could be available to the international community in our national communication," he said.

"What we have now agreed is that with respect to those communications where we are reporting (climate actions), there can be international consultations and analysis. That is whatever information that has been supplied can be subjected to analysis, but such analysis and such consultation have to be without any violation of the principle of national sovereignty," Saran said.

For the past two weeks, delegates from 194 countries had tried to reach a legally-binding treaty to combat climate change. Instead, a non legally-binding political accord, brokered by the US, is now in front of them, but it only takes one party to veto the Copenhagen Accord.