Doha climate talks: rich nations push for dropping disputed matters

Sunshine sector loses sheen

Cancun clinches deal—for polluters

On the night of December 10, Patricia Espinosa shed a tear and received a standing ovation. The foreign secretary of Mexico and president of the 16th Conference of Parties (CoP) on Climate Change held in Cancun had just read out her speech urging all negotiating parties to accept a draft agreement anchored by her country. As she finished her speech, the plenary hall burst into a thunderous applause. Mexico had managed the impossible. It had got all countries barring one to agree on a draft very similar to the Copenhagen Accord, which the earlier CoP had refused to adopt.

Poor man’s burden

World leaders applauded the Cancun agreement even though it violated the right of developing countries to grow with an equal access to global carbon space. Bolivia was the only country that pointed out the inequity. When its ambassador to the UN, Pablo Solon, called the deal a step backward, others booed him. Industrialised countries, along with a few emerging economies, pulled the biggest coup in the history of climate change talks: science and the principle of equity were brushed aside.

How US built consensus to get a deal it wanted

Fundamentally, there is no difference between the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 and the Cancun Agreement on Long-term Cooperative Action. Both turn the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on its head—all countries, rich and poor, have a common protocol under which they “pledge” their voluntary emissions reduction targets. Both pave the way for jettisoning the Kyoto Protocol, in which rich nations had binding obligations based on their historical responsibility for causing climate change.

Developing conflict

A routine meeting of the subsidiary body for scientific and technological advice (SBSTA) in Bonn took an unexpected turn. Saudi Arabia and Brazil, both members of the G-77 and China combine, locked horns over the kind of projects that should be allowed under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

“Not in my lifetime”

NOTHING characterized the stalemate at Bonn climate talks more than the candid admission by incoming executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, in an informal chat with media, said she did not think a complete climate deal could be reached in her lifetime.

Change of cast

The negotiating table in the next international meet on climate change will miss two prominent faces. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2006, resigned on February 18 to join a private consultancy. The Indian prime minister’s special envoy for climate change, Shyam Saran, resigned for different reasons.

All is not well: climate negotiations in a new avatar

Climate change negotiations—cold after the freeze at Copenhagen—have warmed up again.In early April, negotiators met in Bonn, Germany, on the possible agreement that could be signed at the meet scheduled in December 2010 in Mexico.

BASIC distinct

THERE is confusion still about the future of the Copenhagen Accord, the deal reached in Copenhagen in December 2009. While industrialized countries want the accord to be the basis of future negotiations, developing countries, including India and China, are distancing themselves from the accord.