Adopt A Negotiator » India
Adopt A Negotiator » India
Adopt A Negotiator » India
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RED(D) ALERT – India at Bonn 3 Posted: 09 Aug 2009 10:19 AM PDT As the climate talks are revisited at Bonn, we are keeping our eyes and years open to catch all the activity at the conference despite not being able to make it physically there. From Birds- eye view we will be reporting to you any upcomings springing up on this brief intercessional in Bonn. On contacting the delegation these are the basic key thrusts for Bonn 3 in particular 1. India has called for recognizing forest conservation and forestation under the Reduced Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) Scheme, adequate and flexible financing of climate projects in the Third World and viable technology transfer without tags. “We are going to insist on these three pillars of negotiations at Bonn,” the Union minister of state for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh said. He added : “We are not defensive in our approach on emission problem nor are we obstructionist. We are assertive and hope the Bonn Conference would ultimately pave the way for an agreement at Copenhagen meet.” 2. India expects a breakthrough with regard to finance and technology transfer. In that regard, India has also called for a two-day high level global conference on climate change and technology development and transfer beginning in New Delhi from October 22. This international conference is expected to be participated by environment ministers from 190 countries and would come out with a New Delhi Declaration on Technology Transfer. 3. Ramesh reiterated India’s position on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities – a principle that the entire global community has enshrined in UNFCCC concluded in 1992 at the historic Rio Summit. He said that India was for fixing per capita emission limits of countries. He said that India’s per capita emission level was low at 1.2 tonne of carbon dioxide as compared to 20.6 tonne in US, 20 tonne in Canada, 9.8 tonne in UK and Germany, 9.9 tonne in Japan. He said that under circumstances India was not committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and have already assured that its per capita emission would never exceed that of the developed countries. The developing countries have the right to take up development projects to fight poverty , he said. 4. India has already submitted 12 papers in 2008 and 2009 which encapsulate country’s views on relevant topics in the course of negotiations. Of particular note are country’s submission s on technology transfer and forestry. On technology, India has presented a proposal to establish a mechanism for the development and transfer of technologies needed by developing countries for addressing climate change. On forestry, India has put forth an innovative proposal on forestry-related emissions, in which the emphasis is not only on reducing deforestation, but also on forest conservation, sustainable forestry management and enhancement of forest carbon stock. 5. Prior to this upcoming global event, a two-day conference of environment ministers from eight South Asian countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – is scheduled in New Delhi from October 19, 2009 to evolve a common strategy for the region. 6. India is also slated to release on August 10, this year at the time of the Bonn Conference, an analytical report on how much global emission is captured by the country’s forest cover per year. The minister said that India had a large afforestation programme with about 60% of the geographical area (65 million hectare) under forest cover. Within next six years additional six million hectare of degraded forest land would be brought under green cover Ramesh said that he had already discussed with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton about India’s position on climate change during her recent vist to India ”There is a possibility of India joining in a programme for a joint study on shrinking Himalayan glaciers with China. We will also have cooperation with US on solar energy and green coal technology,” he said. Recently India has undertaken 15 initiatives relating to Climate change in the areas of forestry, energy, research, CDM and international conference for generating awareness. On clean development mechanism (CDM) front, the minister said India has largely benefited and could garner $600 million. The scheme needs to be expanded, he said. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has recently approved a total outlay of Rs 369 million on major forestry management in the XI Plan period and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would provide for capacity building and training. Under this scheme the Union government would provide 70% grant to state government. However in case of special category state the Union-States funding will be in the ratio 90:10 In all we would see a lot lobbying, support building and negotiating now that the cumbersome 200 page document regarding the negotiating text is prepared and ready. Wishing everyone a BONN voyage for the next 4 days.
 Eagles view of Bonn
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Fun in the SUN- India goes SOLAR Posted: 08 Aug 2009 02:13 PM PDT India is finally taking advantage of the heat and scjorching sun by coming out with its long awaited solar mission, one of eight of the missions under the National action plan on climate change. In its tribute to the sun gods it has promised to achieve a target of producing 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. “A draft National Solar Mission document proposing a target of 20,000 MW for solar power by 2020 has received in principle approval of Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change in its meeting held on August 3, 2009,” New and Renewable Energy Minister M r Farooq Abdullah said while replying to a query in Lok Sabha. Mr Abdullah said that government was planning to add 15,000 MW capacity from renewable energy sources during the 11th Plan Period. By the end of 11th Plan, renewable power capacity is likely to cross 24,000 MW, which would be around 12 per cent of the th en installed power capacity in the country. The Minister said that by the end of 13th Plan, renewable power capacity would be around 54,000 MW. We applaud the government for finally having taken a stern step to shift to a low carbon pathway but would like to consider the following points of concern: 1. The document is not officially out and there will be an important meeting between three ministries : power, science and technology and Environment and forests in August to discuss the figures in the document. 2. There is no stakeholder consultation in the process and implementation plan has not been mentioned in the document. 3.Their is a possibility of the solar mission locking India into a corner in the international negotiations. India has asked for full costs of new technologies from the rich countries to limit climate-changing gas emissions at the negotiations. But the solar mission document suggests that India would be able to fund the entire project on its own. Government officials have pointed out that it would be hard to demand additional funds from the industrialised countries if India claims it can afford to sponsor such a large subsidy off its own resources. 4. Sunita Narain – Head of Centre for science and environment has the following to say: We cannot assume that the cost of solar energy will decrease so sharply as given (in the mission document). We hope that the fun in the sun actually supplements our energy requirments in the process and that the document doesn’t merely remain restricted to paper.
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Adopt A Negotiator » India
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Posted: 14 Aug 2009 05:17 AM PDT In the AWG LCA meeting the Indian Negotitator proposed to cut short the tedious 200 page long text. In accordance to their stanec with emphasis on the Bali Action Plan principles they said, there is need to build upon the areas of Convergence that are in line with the Convention and BAP has to be followed. The differences arising out of the proposals can be removed as they do not conform to the Convention and also to request the parties about the reason of difference. According to the representative from India, the discussions related to the ideas of governance in conformity with the BAP and Convention, the idea of equity and fulfilling responsibility of the developed countries for the historical emissions, and the democratic process of accessing the funds are the mainstream elements of building up a financial mechanism with a robust institutional structure for delivery for addressing the climate change problem. The general mood is that the things are moving very slowly and the fact that there are exchanges of issues between the developed and the developing countries on various issues are only the first steps towards evolving a position by the different groups. India also pointed out that the developing countries have to scale-up the magnitude of the technology delivery as well so as to arrive at meeting the demands of the population of the developing countries. For example, the countries need to move to a path of de-carbonisation through deployment of biomass, solar and other clean energy sources that will meet the energy demand, currently being met by the fossil fuel sources. India also supported the need for developing the adaptation technologies as has been pointed out by Bangladesh. But back home they argue that they would not scale up activities in India untill and unless they have funding from Annex 1 parties. Duality? |
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