It was India, which at last year’s climate negotiations at Durban had insisted on bringing the principle of equity back into the agenda for tackling climate change. The concept, which not so long ago had almost fallen off the climate agenda now features in almost everyone’s negotiation agenda at the mid-year climate change meeting at Bonn. The testament to its regaining relevance in climate talks was a day-long workshop on May 17 organised by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), exclusively devoted to debating the concept of equity.
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"The particular means by which the available (carbon) budget is shared among countries is inherently an issue of equity. It draws in common but differentiates responsibilities and respective capabilities as well as historical responsibility." |
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—Sivan Kartha |
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The challenge of 2oC
The workshop opened to presentations made by Sivan Kartha from the Stockholm Environment Institute and Pradipto Ghosh from TERI, familiar voices on the subject.
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"For persons of low capability who will suffer more impacts, those with high capability should provide resources and technology in proportion to their higher capability." |
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— Pradipto Ghosh |
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"There is going to have to be a multiplicity of ways to reflect equity in any agreement we reach. We need to consider equity in as broad as possible a fashion if we are going to reach agreement. If we focus too narrowly...on one approach, it will inevitably lead to many countries viewing that approach as being unfair and that lack of perceived fairness will likely drive us away from agreement." |
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— Jonathan Pershing, lead negotiator, US |
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"The UNFCCC principles need to reflect the evolving realities of the changing world. A spectrum of commitments is what is required in order to ensure the highest possible effort by all parties in a fair, efficient and transparent way from all parties." |
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— Artur Runge-Metzger,
lead negotiator, EU |
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