BASIC nations to discuss climate change talks' tactics

Ministers of China, Brazil and South Africa to hold closed-door talks with Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and team

The ministers of China, Brazil and South Africa, along with their respective climate change negotiators, will hold closed-door talks with Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and his team on August 7-8.

This meeting of BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) ministers will strategise for the upcoming rounds of climate negotiations that will lead to the global 2015 agreement.

BASIC grouping has become a prominent voice of emerging economies at the UN climate talks and is seen as one of the important country blocks that hold influence at the negotiations, besides the European Union and the United States.

Sources in the government said the talks would focus on how to push the developed countries to make the 2015 agreement a holistic one, covering not just mitigation but also adaptation, finance and technology.

The US and EU have been insisting that the key agreement be limited to mitigation, with other pillars of the talks being addressed in detail later.

By March 2015, all countries are required to also provide a new list of actions they would take under the 2015 climate agreement. These are called “intended nationally determined contributions”.

The four ministers will also discuss the shape and content of these actions. The four are likely to find common ground on negotiating the framework for these actions at the upcoming annual UN climate talks in Peru, where the first draft of the 2015 agreement will be fleshed out.

The BASIC meeting will also have a session discussing how they wish to see principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and equity operationlised in the new agreement. Besides, they are expected to take a joint position on what in climate jargon is referred to as the ex-ante review.

Some countries have demanded that the actions submitted by nations under the 2015 agreement be reviewed for their adequacy and equity-based burden-sharing; and if need be, reviewed to meet the requirements of keeping global temperatures under check.

The BASIC meeting is to be followed up with an important meeting of the Like-Minded Developing Countries, which includes the Philippines, Cuba, China, India, a grouping that has negotiated with more cohesion at the climate talks in recent years.