Major victory for India at Bonn climate talks

In a major victory for India and other developing countries on pre-2020 climate actions that the developed world on Wednesday agreed to discuss the issue at the next two climate conferences in subsequent two years.

As part of the agreement that was reached at the UN Climate Change conference here, Fiji, which is presiding over the conference named COP23, has also been asked to send letters to all the countries which are yet to ratify the Doha amendments to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 to do so "as soon as possible".

The developed countries have also been asked to give information by May 1 next year on the progress they have made on pre-2020 actions that relates to their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol that includes reduction of emissions and transfer of technology and finance.

India and the developing countries had been demanding since the start of the climate summit on November 6 that pre-2020 climate actions be included in the formal agenda of the negotiations.

The developed world had so far been resisting it.

A strong message was communicated to the developed countries that post-2020 climate action as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement cannot be divorced from pre-2020 commitments, India's Environment Secretary C.K. Mishra said in a statement.

Early entry into force of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is at the heart of pre-2020 discussions which entails revisit of greenhouse gas mitigation targets by the developed countries and provision of finance, technology and capacity building support to developing countries.

Although this agenda has significant bearing on the developing countries and been under discussion since 2007, it was slowly relegated to the background, Mishra added.

Two years after the world united around the Paris Climate Agreement and a year after its entry into force, the 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 197 have reconvened for their 23rd annual climate change talks (this one is COP 23) in Bonn till November 17.

The talks, which began on November 6, are expected to take a number of decisions necessary to bring the Paris Agreement to life, including meaningful progress on the agreement to implement guidelines to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius with an aim to cut greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

(Vishal Gulati is in Bonn at the invitation of the Global Editors Network to cover COP23. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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