India announces National Action Plan on Climate

New Delhi, July 6 : India has put forward its own perspective on Climate Change issues and how it should be tackled.

'It is baseless to state that India's negative attitude is holding up negotiations by raising objections to proposals from other countries, and it has not put forward any of its own ideas on what the Copenhagen package should look like,' said a ministry release.

It is India's view that the planetary atmospheric space is a common resource of humanity and each citizen of the globe has an equal entitlement to that space. The principle of equity, therefore,implies that, over a period of time, there should be a convergence in per capita emissions. Any global Climate Change regime which results in merely freezing of the huge divergence in per capita emissions, will not be acceptable on grounds of equity. Furthermore, in tackling the challenge of Climate Change, both production and consumption patterns need to be addressed, with a willingness to address lifestyle issues.

'India believes that Climate Change, which we all agree is an extraordinary challenge, deserves an extraordinary response. All countries of the world, developed and developing, need to join in a collaborative effort, to bringabout a strategic shift, across the globe, from production and consumption patterns based on carbon-based fossil fuels to those based on renewable energy and non-carbon fuels,' said the release.

As per the release, a global package has been devised that include the following agendas-

(a) commits developed countries to significant reductions in their GHG emissions;

(b) achieves the widest possible dissemination at affordable costs of existing climate-friendly technologies and practices; and

(c) puts in place a collaborative R&D effort among developed and major developing countries, to bring about cost-effective technological innovations and transformational technologies, that can put the world on the road to a carbon-free economy.

The Indian approach will require appropriate handling of the IPR issue, since widest possible dissemination will require existing climate-friendly technologies and goods to be made available, especially to developing countries, as public goods. Competitive bidding for such technologies, financed through multilateral funds, could be used to avoid loss to the innovators.

The collaborative R&D effort could be similarly funded through a multilateral fund under the UNFCCC with its products being available as public goods, enabling rapid and widespread dissemination. India, like other major developing countries, would be willing to be an active participant in any such initiative. It would also be necessary to provide for large-scale capacity building, particularly in developing countries, to enable successful absorption and application of climate-friendly technologies. A Copenhagen package incorporating these components, with an accompanying multilateral financing package, would be an outcome worthy of a concerned global citizenry.

India has made written submissions to the UNFCCC on each of the following issues being considered in the negotiations, as a constructive contribution to negotiations.
These are;

(i) Submission on Long Term Co-operative Action, (ii) Submission on enhancing action on Adaptation, (iii) Financing Architecture for Mitigation Financial Commitments Under the UNFCCC, (iv) Submission on Technology Transfer Mechanism, (v) Submission on Mitigation Actions of Developing Countries under Paragraph 1 (b) (ii) of theBali Action Plan (BAP), (vi) Submission on Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV)- under BAP 1 (b) (i), (vii) Submission on Reduced Deforestation in Developing countries (REDD), Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), and Afforestation And Reforestation (A&R), under the BAP, (viii) Submission on Nationally Appropriate Actions of Developing Countries, and (ix) Submission on financing Flows (Why Financial Contributions to the Financial Mechanism of the UNFCCC cannot be under the Paradigm of 'Aid').

More submissions will be made as the negotiations proceed. India has also joined together with G 77* + China partners to make several constructive contributions to the ongoing multilateral negotiations.

G77: The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seven developing countries signatories of the 'Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries' issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Beginning with the first 'Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 in Algiers (Algeria) on 10 – 25 October 1967, which adopted the Charter of Algiers', a permanent institutional structure gradually developed which led to the creation of Chapters of the Group of 77 with Liaison offices in Geneva (UNCTAD), Nairobi (UNEP), Paris (UNESCO), Rome (FAO/IFAD), Vienna (UNIDO), and the Group of 24 (G-24) in Washington, D.C. (IMF and World Bank). Although the members of the G-77 have increased to 130 countries, the original name was retained because of its historic significance.

Aims: The Group of 77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of states in the United Nations, which provides the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development.

--IBNS