News | Climate Change

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article822290.ece

The last round of negotiations before the year-end Cancun climate conference concluded on Saturday with modest progress, officials said, with the talks being slowed down by disagreements between China and the United States.

Even as the back and forth between Chinese and U.S. officials continued through Saturday, officials said they were struck by the absence of an Indian voice in the climate debate.
“India has been very, very quiet this week,” Jacob Scherr, director, global strategy and advocacy, of the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told The Hindu. “It has generally been difficult to follow the major developments in negotiations, with everything being done behind closed doors. But India has just not been very visible.”
Negotiators from several countries and climate analysts said the talks yielded some positive results, most notably on bridging differences over climate finance from developed countries.
United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres said she was optimistic that a plan for developed nations to fund $30 billion of “fast start” projects in developing countries to combat climate change would be finalised at Cancun, despite persisting differences. “I have said and I will continue to say that fast-track finance is the golden key to Cancun,” she said. “I am confident that the golden key will be dutifully unlocked.”
But this week's negotiations in Tianjin, a port city near here, have been overshadowed by continued sparring between China and the U.S.
U.S. officials said China could not expect industrialised nations to take on bigger commitments unless it first agreed to strict measurement and verification of projects, and also took on more than voluntary targets.
Chinese officials have blamed the U.S. for seeking to backtrack from the Kyoto Protocol during the talks, by calling for a substantial amendment. “Any move that aims to overthrow the Kyoto Protocol should be denounced,” chief climate negotiator Su Wei said.
China's top climate official Xie Zhenhua earlier called on developed countries to “do more and do better.”
“The talks have looked like a show going on between China and the U.S., with everyone else hiding behind the drama,” Yang Ailun, Greenpeace China's head of climate and energy, told The Hindu. Ms. Yang, too, said India, along with Brazil and South Africa, had been “very quiet.” “It is natural that with the talks being held in China, attention would be on the home country, but the silence of India has been very strange.”
India is being represented at the talks by a 15-member delegation, headed by Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests J.M. Mauskar. Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh arrives in Tianjin on Sunday.
Representatives of climate groups and the media in Tianjin said the delegation had been largely silent this week, leaving much uncertainty over where India stood on issues such as climate finance that have dominated the debate.
India in the past closely coordinated its positions on most issues with China. Their interests and pressures have, however, diverged. China, as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases with 23 per cent of global emissions, was increasingly targeted by developed nations in talks this week. India accounts for only 5 per cent. It, however, stands much to gain — and lose —from the outcome of this week's debate, particularly on issues such as climate finance.
India, along with other developing nations such as Brazil and South Africa, had failed to take a leading role, analysts said, even as the debate was mired in disagreements between China and the U.S. This marked a contrast from the December climate summit in Copenhagen, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh played a key role in negotiating the compromise Copenhagen Accord, along with U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of China and Brazil.