Final draft negotiating text 'weak, unambitious': CSE

The final draft negotiating text of the climate deal continues to be "weak and unambitious" as it does not include any "meaningful" targets for developed countries to reduce emissions, an Indian green body today said.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that this agreement is a universal agreement, which has "erased the historical responsibility" of developed world and puts the onus on developing nations equally.
"India has managed to get at least the fact that the agreement will be implemented on the principles of equity but we have still not been able to operationalise equity. That is worry. It was a very tough battle (for India). From the first draft to now when the issue equity was erased, this draft also does not have any mention of historical responsibilities," said CSE Director General Sunita Narain.

"So the developed countries have won by not even getting the word. Now this agreement is a universal agreement, which has erased the historical responsibility of developed world and puts the onus on developing nations equally," she said.
However, the green body also welcomed the fact that the final draft negotiating text remains under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and will be guided by its principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) but expressed concern that the principle of equity has not been operationalised across all sections of the agreement.
"On the whole, the draft Paris agreement continues to be weak and unambitious, as it does not include any meaningful targets for developed countries to reduce their emissions.

"Climate injustice is a concern of some and it maintains that the agreement will be based on principles of equity and CBDR. But as it does not operationalise these terms, it could still end up furthering climate apartheid," Delhi-based CSE said.

It said that the draft removes all differentiation in mitigation actions between countries and in this way removes the firewall that existed in the framework convention, between countries that needed to take action because of their contribution to creating the problem.
The CSE said the differentiation in terms of review of
both reporting and actions has also been removed which was a "highly contentious" issue and India till now had resisted all efforts to have a universal reporting and review mechanism.

"Now all countries are required to submit and update their nationally determined contributions every five years and their progress will be reviewed through a technical expert review, which is expected to be non-intrusive and respectful of national sovereignty.
"In this way, the differentiation between developed and developing country actions to reduce emissions has been erased," it said.
The key problem, according to the green body is the fact that nowhere does the draft say that the ratcheting up of actions by countries will be done based on equity and fair share of the carbon space.
Observing that the initial draft included the mention of the sharing of global carbon budget, the CSE said this has been removed, presumably because of pressure from the United States.

"This is unacceptable as this now paves the way for the burden of transition to be shifted completely by the developed to developing world," it said.
It also asserted that there has been been a clear push back on the issue of loss and damage and it has been accepted that a mechanism on loss and damage (to estimate the loss because of climate change and to estimate its damage on economies and people) will be established.
"But the US has won because it has also been made clear that this provision will not involve or provide basis for compensation or liability," it said.

In terms of finance, the differential has been maintained by stating that the developed countries will provide support to developing countries for both mitigation and adaptation.
"This is the only place where equity has been operationalised. But we know that the promise of finances has always been illusionary and so whereas the previous draft mentioned US$ 100 billion to be made available, it has been removed in the current draft agreement," it said.