India wants full discussion on differentiation principle

Javadekar meets US team, finds little convergence

The Indian delegation led by Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had a meeting with the US special envoy on climate change, Todd Stern, at Lima on Sunday.

The meeting was one of a series planned to explore common grounds and understand the non-negotiable issues of each important country before the formal high-level round of climate change negotiations start on Monday, with ministers heading delegations of 196 countries.

On Monday, the minister is slated to meet his counterpart from China, Xie Zhenhua. He is also to sit for a round of talks on Monday with ministers of all BASIC group countries, which includes Brazil, South Africa and China.

The Sunday meeting between India and the US took place against the backdrop of India demanding a separate and upfront discussion at Lima on the issue of differentiation between developed and developing countries.

In the meeting, sources said, Javadekar raised concern over the lack of movement on talks for enhancing climate action by developed countries in the pre-2020 period before the Paris agreement comes into play. He also expressed concern about the low level of funding for the Green Climate Fund.

The meeting did not find many areas of convergence, sources told Business Standard. US’ view on differentiation continued to be far from India’s. It also presented an extremely hard-line position, that the Paris 2015 agreement and the “intended nationally determined contributions” should be focused only on mitigation (emission reduction targets) and not give parity to adaptation, finance and technology — a joint demand of all developing countries.

The two countries did agree to a meeting of the joint task force on the HFC gases (refrigerant gases that also cause global warming) in January, ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to India. Follow-up meetings between Stern and Javadekar are expected in the  week, to explore joint announcements on climate change during the US president’s visit.  At another event on Sunday, organised by the Global Legislators Organisation, the minister said India was preparing to bring in a legislation during the Budget session of Parliament that would also address some issues relating to climate change.

The minister was referring to the government’s plan to introduce a legislation along the lines proposed by the panel headed by T S R Subramanian to review five environmental laws. He referred to inclusion of afforestation efforts and better standards and regulation for air pollution.

On some issues, India has a degree of resonance with the US red lines. On others, the classical divide of developed and developing countries at the climate change negotiations has only got deeper. One of the issues that continue to drive the divide deeper is differentiation between developed and developing countries. On Saturday, when stock-taking of the week-long negotiations took place, India demanded an upfront and separate discussion on differentiation. India’s representative Ravi S Prasad said, “In the discussions we have been having, equity and CBDR has been a critical element, it pervades all the discussion we have. Perhaps, if we could all have a separate discussion on it, then we can move rapidly on other parts of the text.”

The developed countries, including the US and EU, have collectively pushed to redefine the idea of common but differentiated responsibilities and many developing countries have opposed this move as it dilutes the existing responsibilities of developed nations. The divide was evident in each element of the negotiations at Lima through the week – the nature of commitments under the 2015 agreement, who should provide finance to fight climate change and the nature of the 2015 Paris agreement itself.

The co-chairs of the talks had taken note of the Indian intervention. On Monday as talks start, the co-chairs are expected to produce another note summing up last week’s talks and presenting negotiating text that reflects all countries’ views and not just cherry-picked ideas. “We shall have to wait and see if the co-chairs do better than before and produce a more balanced text that reflects countries’ varying ideas and reflects them correctly. If they go back to their old ways we are in for a big fight over the week,” said a negotiator from the LMDC group speaking to Business Standard on Sunday night from Lima.  

Javadekar has already held a long stock-taking meeting with the Indian delegation and is expected to meet his counterparts of the BASIC group, besides interact with the Like-Minded Developing Countries to which India and China are now more closely linked.