India has capitulated at Cancun, says CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has said India has capitulated at Cancun, betrayed its poor and agreed to “a weak and ineffective text that paves the way for ineffective emission reduction targets for the developed countries and scrapping of the Kyoto Protocol.”

“A text of an agreement for the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action made its appearance at the Moon Palace Hotel, the venue of the 16th Conference of Parties. For India and its millions of poor, this text can only be termed as a betrayal,” CSE said.

The centre further said the text was an extremely weak document, which set the stage for an end to Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, it also operationalised the Copenhagen accord and removed the distinctions between developed and developing countries.

Reading between the lines, the statement said: “While the legally binding nature of the agreement has been kept in abeyance till the next meeting in Durban in December 2011, the agreement has established a different legal framework through the use of MRV/ICA regimes.” These, said CSE, would allow for domestic actions, even if unsupported by finance or technology, to be internationally verified. Further, there was no global emission reduction target for 2050 nor was there a target for peaking year. No targets had been set for emissions reduction for developed countries.

“This statement means that now our internal domestic targets will be subject to a mechanism of verification and we will have to stick to those else there will be penalty just like in Kyoto Protocol,” said Aditya Ghosh, senior coordinator, climate change, CSE.

There was no mention of equitable access to carbon space, instead a weak and meaningless language of “equitable access to sustainable development” had been inserted, which would compromise India’s right to development.

“The emission reduction pledges made by all countries in Copenhagen Accord is way below the requirement of keeping the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. It will put the world on course for a 3 degree C or more increase in temperature, which will be devastating for the poorest and most vulnerable,” the statement added.

The centre went on to say that in other words, while India had succumbed to the pressure to agree to a universal instrument, it had failed abysmally to get the more powerful countries to agree to the basic actions to combat climate change.

“Instead, all we have succeeded in is to give away concessions from our side, without getting anything in return,” the statement added.