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Draft Paris pact stresses ‘voluntary contributions’ -G Ananthakrishnan
-The Hindu

India says it is ready for a regime of stocktaking of future carbon emissions.

In a clear signal that active diplomacy is at work to forge an agreement in Paris based on voluntary pledges, one that is subject to transparent monitoring, India said on Friday that it was ready for a regime of stocktaking of future carbon emissions. The U.S., on its part, said it had “nothing but respect” for India’s approach at the climate talks.

“We are comfortable and welcome the process, even at a five-yearly cycle,” said Susheel Kumar, Additional Secretary in the Environment Ministry, adding “What we are trying to convey is that the process should be linked to the next cycle, not the present one.” India’s first Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) are for the 2021-2030 period, and it would prefer a review after that.

However, India is not in a position to fix a target year for peaking of carbon emissions because of the current state of its development. The Centre had engaged several technical institutions to do modelling studies, but they could not identify a likely peaking date due to uncertainty.

Neither was it possible to predict what percentage of nuclear power would form part of renewable energy due to several hurdles, although the target was to generate 63 GW by 2032.

The Indian side got an endorsement from the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, Todd Stern. “I have had four or five meetings with Indian counterparts in just the last week, and we are working quite intensively and in a businesslike and constructive way. I have nothing but respect for the Indians,” he said.

The U.S. talks with India follow President Barack Obama's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

“[It was] an extraordinarily rich exchange, very substantive, the two leaders have a tremendous rapport. The President is very substantively tuned into this issue, and wanted to talk substance and did. PM Modi was every bit ready to do the same and so it was very good conversation,” the U.S. envoy told the media.

The U.S., which did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol that fixed quantified emissions reductions, would like to have a transparency regime in the Paris agreement that would build trust. Transparency would allow everybody to have confidence and trust that others were acting to reduce carbon. There would be a role for other countries in the process and also civil society, the press and think tanks. Countries should be encouraged to do the best that they can, but not expected to do more than they can, Mr. Stern said.

However, it remains firm on the issue of historic responsibility. It is unwilling to concede that it had emitted the greenhouse gases now concentrated in the atmosphere in large measure. It will not therefore accept that there should be liability and compensation for loss and damage. “This is not a U.S.-centric position but virtually [of] all developed countries,” Mr. Stern said on the question of including provisions for loss and damage in the Paris text. Cooperative and constructive discussions were on with both islands and G77 on developing a solution, besides the EU.

The draft Paris agreement, of which a new iteration with fewer pages was released on Friday, has controversial optional text which says all parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change who were “in a position to do so” should provide assistance to developing countries in the area of finance, for mitigation and adaptation.

To questions on what this meant, Mr. Stern said historically, the developed countries had been donors and they would continue to provide. But already “developing countries have contributed to the Green Climate Fund.” China had made an announcement of $3 billion dollars for a south-south fund for climate assistance. Contribution was voluntary, and if some countries over-read it as some new obligation, “it is not,” he said.

Progress after week-1

Defending the Obama administration’s handling of the climate change issue, he said it had taken extraordinary measures using existing clean energy and environment laws to cut emissions. There would always be challenges from Congress and people who did not like to see EPA regulate, but the agency had a very strong record of prevailing.

On Thursday night, India joined China and the Arab group led by Saudi Arabia in calling for exclusion of substantive recommendations on keeping global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees C made by a review panel under the Structured Expert Dialogue system of UNFCCC, in the submission to the CoP21 negotiating parties.

While the Arab group led by Saudi Arabia “blocked” the proposal, India and China were “less adamant and more diplomatic”. But they went along with Saudi position since there was no agreement on how the review report coming after three years of work should be handled, civil society organisations said.

In summary, the review favoured a 1.5 degrees rise over a 2 degree rise that would greatly affect vulnerable nations, said Climate Action Network International, a collective of 850 NGOs society organisations.

Civil society organisations also felt that there was greater progress in Paris at the end of one week than there had been at Copenhagen in 2009, Kelly Dent, Food, Climate and Humanitarian Advocacy Manager at Oxfam Australia said.

Greenpeace, the NGO which has had a troubled relationship with the NDA government, today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to play a heroic role at CoP21, and pledge a total shift to renewable energy in India by 2050.

The Executive Director of Greenpeace International Kumi Naidoo expressed the NGOs sympathy with those suffering from floods in Chennai, and said those who had to respond to it faced great challenges. Climate change was not made by India, but the country was paying the price.

Major polluters should be held accountable for historical greenhouse gas emissions that had produced climate change. A shift to total renewable energy access by 2050 was the only way to keep a rise in global temperature under 1.5 degrees C, which was essential to save the most vulnerable countries. A complete shift to renewable energy would produce millions of clean energy jobs.