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Countries unhappy with proposals, yet continue with Doha talks -Meena Menon
-The Hindu

The climate talks continued here on Saturday with Conference of Parties (COP) 18 president Abdullah Bin Hamid Al Hattiyah of Qatar pushing for a conclusion, while accepting that everyone was unhappy with the proposals, but at the same time wanting an outcome.

After a brief informal plenary in the morning where Mr. Al Hattiyah asked ministerial outreach groups on key issues to report back after consultation, the plenary convened briefly in the afternoon where no one said anything on the proposals under discussion. These include finance, loss and damage, second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol, apart from long term cooperative action (LCA). It was decided then to take up the various proposals starting with the Kyoto Protocol and its second commitment period under the Conference of the Parties (COP) serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP).

The COP president, determined to finish the meeting on Saturday, said there could be no text to make everyone happy and if they were reopened for discussion, it would be like opening a Pandora’s box and would take another two or three weeks to reach a conclusion. On what he described as the final day, he called on countries to accept what “we can offer,” while agreeing that it was not perfect.

After a much-heated debate through the night including a stand-off between G-77 and the United States on the issues of loss and damage, finance, and shared vision, the Doha Gateway to which Mr. Al Hattiyah referred to optimistically on Friday night seemed reachable, though the likely outcome smacks of a weak-kneed approach and even weaker commitments on all fronts.

After protests by several countries on the main proposals up for debate and which were revised in fresh texts in the morning, the sticking points continued to be finance, where the new text remained vague on midterm commitments and the proposals on payment for loss and damage where an international mechanism had been suggested much to the consternation of the U.S., and the lack of ambition in emission cuts by developed countries, among other key issues.

Kuomi Naidöo, international executive director of Greenpeace, said, “The key issue is money and we are running out of time. Science is urging us to take quick decisions. We came here with low expectations and there are some main issues for instance, the countries jumping ship from the second period of commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and the question of finance.”

“The United States is probably going to spend $60 billion on damage to New Jersey alone after superstorm Sandy and it spends an equal amount if not more on its marching bands in the military,” he remarked.

The proposals for the second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol too continued to be weak and linked to reviews and a ministerial process, said Harjeet Singh of Action Aid International. “What is stopping the developed countries from increasing their ambitions to make emission cuts,” he asked. A weak second period of commitment and no finance on the table spelt doom for the future of the Durban Platform, he added. The ADP or the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action is a subsidiary body that was established in Durban to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties. The ADP is to complete its work as early as possible but no later than 2015 in order to adopt this protocol.

The principles of equity were absent under ADP, Mr. Singh said and referring to the ‘Doha Gateway,’ he added that if the path was based on no firm commitment to finance and no ambitious emission cuts from the developed world, it would be a destination to nowhere.

While the U.S. in informal discussions accepted that losses could be humungous due to climate impacts, it opposed compensation as envisaged by countries faced with the threat of going under water due to sea level rise. The spirit of compensation was there in some ways in the loss and damage proposals, including one to establish institutional arrangements such as an international mechanism, which is the U.S. bugbear.

Dr. Saleemul Huq, director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, said the U.S. and developed countries could not resist payment for loss and damage forever.