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India’s demand for equity finds place in Rio+20 draft-Nitin Sethi

-The Times of India

The draft declaration for theRio+20 summit, with India's demands of reasserting equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) finding place in the text was accepted by the negotiators from more than 180 countries a day ahead of the meeting of the heads of states on Wednesday.

With the negotiators of influential countries and blocks not pushing for more changes, sources in the Indian delegation suggested, it could now be adopted by the heads of states over the next three days.

Technically, the possibility remained that the ministers and heads of states could ask for reworking of the Rio+20 declaration, but traditionally drafts that are approved by all at the negotiator level get adopted and approved by the heads of states smoothly.

Brazil presented the text to the negotiators of more than 180 countries, with a plea not to reopen it for negotiations with the developing countries - as part of the G77 block - happier about the draft declaration than the European nations and the US.

The countries agreed to sustainable development goals (SDGs) to be developed through an inter-governmental mechanism. Also, they agreed to look into where the funds and technology would come from to achieve these targets. The SDGs would be set up under the existing Rio principles, which the EU and US had tried hard to dilute. But in a victory for the developing world that attempt was blocked.

Through the declaration, the heads of states would also advocate for countries adopting policies that make an economy 'green', the developing countries ensured at Rio de Janeiro that the developed nations do not impose one-size-fit-all targets and goals.

While the developing countries may have come out of the Rio summit saving themselves from the attack on their right to development in the global arena, the regression by the developed world from its obligations agreed in 1992 ensured that the 2012 declaration did not make much headway in promoting environmental causes. "It's a battle of attrition with the developed countries, facing domestic economic crisis, shying away from their obligations and instead putting the onus on the emerging economies. Environment is not a consideration for the rich world in this era as it was generally in 1992, it is now purely about competitive geopolitics," another Indian negotiator told TOI.

The Rio summit gains importance as it sets the larger framework of principles from which specific negotiations, such as the climate change talks, draw their conclusions. Any dilution of principles critical to the stance of developing countries would have automatically made their battles in the specific negotiations much more difficult.

An Indian delegate told TOI, "There were a few sticking points for us in the finalized declaration, but we can live with the document unless the Americans or Europeans reopen it yet again in the next three days. Our major issues have been addressed appropriately."

If the G77 block sticks together over the next three days as the heads of states meet, India could rejoice that the critical principles it had fought with its back to the wall to preserve at the last climate change talks in Durban in 2011 have now become the fundamental basis of developing countries' collective position for all future environmental negotiations.

The declaration, presented to on Tuesday, was seen as a huge victory for the G77+China block considering the US and Europe's strong objections to the principles being re-emphasized 20 years after they were first agreed upon in Rio.

The two principles require developed countries, which have the resources and are largely responsible for unsustainable development so far, to have greater obligations under any global compact were agreed upon in the 1992 Rio summit, but now the rich countries, battered by the economic crisis, want to wriggle out of the commitments even as they push for a faster and costlier transition to a 'green economy' by the developing economies.