Just as it seemed that differences over contentious issues regarding the next climate treaty were ironing out and all parties moving ahead with a common agenda, the developed countries, US in particular, threatened to stall negotiations until developing countries pledge equal emission reduction measures.

According to new reports, American negotiators demanded that there should be similar mitigation obligations for developed as well developing countries. The demand was strictly against the unanimous decision to draw distinction between capacities of developed and developing nations to reduce carbon emissions taken at the Bali Climate Conference in 2007.

Developing countries, led by India, opposed the demand in one voice and forced the American negotiators to back down.

United States’ stance came as a surprise given that officials from the Obama administration have been in constant talks with various developing countries and that these talks have resulted in many developing countries agreeing to voluntary emission reduction plans. It was that since the carbon output of most developing countries is much less than that of developed countries and that they are not technically and financially equipped to take up bold mitigation measures a clear differentiation between mitigation measures taken up by the two parties.

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The European Union has proposed a climate change funding of €2-15 billion every year for developing countries to help them make transition from fossil fuel based energy systems to clean energy based systems. However, EU does not see the advanced developing counties like India and China eligible for this financial help.

EU in its Global Finance Blueprint for Ambitious Action by Developing Nations paper stated that advanced developing countries should contribute to the climate adaptation fund instead of expecting funds for themselves. According to the paper, advanced developing countries posses ample financial resources to initiate and sustain emission reduction programs.

The Commission said that from 2013, it would depend on the carbon market to fund 40% of the money required for climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing nations. The emerging economies should be able to generate 20-40% of the proposed global fund, it said. The remaining—around $22-50 billion a year—will be paid for by the European Union and the rest of the developed nations.

Developing countries have been at loggerheads with the developed countries on the issue of funding for adaptation to clean fuel technologies. Decision to set up an adaptation fund for helping poor and developing countries was taken at the Bali climate conference in 2007. However, the developed countries are yet to act on their promises of aid as they find themselves constrained by the global economic crisis and objections by their own people.

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Developed nations have so far ignored the guidelines and warning issued by the UNFCCC regarding the amounts of carbon emissions that they need to reduce by the year 2020 in order to prevent a climatic catastrophe.

According to the scientific panel of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the world must cumulatively reduce its carbon emissions by at least 25 to 40 percent in order to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming. However, during the ongoing round of Climate Change Talks at Bonn, Germany, the developed nations have failed to come up with convincing targets for reducing their greenhouse gas outputs.

While the European Union has made it clear to notch up its 20 percent reduction target by 2020 to 30 percent if rest of the developed nations agree to a 20 percent reduction target, there has been poor response from countries like Australia, United States and Japan.

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China is building four to six coal reserves each with capacity exceeding 20 million tonnes in order to address the problem of shortage of the fuel. Meanwhile, Chinese officials also called upon the leaders of developed nations to set ambitious carbon emission reduction goals.

China is the world’s largest coal producer and consumer but lately the demand has outpaced supply, a trend likely to continue into the next year. To address this gap in demand-supply China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has planned to build coal reserves in the the eastern province of Shandong which will be ready within three to five years. According to the officials of the NDRC, the stockpiles are meant for use with the province only and China has substantial coal supply on the national level.

Coal remains China’s primary source of energy and it is also exported to many neighboring countries as well. Easy and plentiful availability of coal is one of the major reasons behind China’s strong resistance to any kind of emission reduction targets. Instead, officials from the NDRC itself called upon the developed nations to commit to more ambitious emission targets closer to 25 to 40 percent by the year 2020 from 1990 levels.

Reports about shortage of coal reserves have been doing the rounds lately with some of them predicting a peak in coal supplies by 2025. India, too, has been facing shortage of coal.

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India’s special envoy on Climate Change has demanded that developed nations invest more in renewable energy projects and do more to reduce their carbon emissions.

The Indian government wants the developed nations to ‘re-double’ their efforts on funding clean energy projects and not let the current economic crisis be a roadblock in those efforts. The envoy also reiterated that his government was not yet in a position to pledge to any mandatory emission reduction goals. He reminded the developed nation of the ‘historical responsibility’ to bring down their carbon emission levels.

Continuing with his hawkish tone, the envoy added that the developed countries should carry on with their effort to reduce carbon emissions but should not expect the same from developing countries. He said that any efforts to pressurize developing countries to sign up for mandatory emission cuts under the next climate treaty could jeopardize any international treaty. 

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While lauding President Obama for making climate change a central issue in his administration’s policy the Indian government demanded that more needs to be done on the part of developed nations, especially in regard to setting robust emission reduction goals and funding clean energy projects in developing countries.

Setting the agenda straight for the Copenhagen talks, India’s envoy on Climate Change said that no workable solution could be reached if the developed countries did not agree to stricter emission reduction goals. He reiterated his country’s stand that it was not ready to commit to any emission reduction goals. He said that technology transfer and funding of clean energy projects are the biggest issues which could decide the future of the next climate treaty.

The views presented by India’s envoy are very unfortunate and seem highly unfair. As far as funding is concerned, India and China are the biggest beneficiaries of the Clean Development Mechanism through which developed countries finance clean energy projects in developing countries to offset their own carbon emissions. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, China is the largest polluter while India is the third largest. This bestows a great share of ‘collective but differential’ responsibility on the Asian giants to cut carbon emissions.  

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There is an urgent need to bring down the rising carbon emissions and switch over from the dirty fossil fuels to clean alternative energy sources. Leaders of the developed and developing nations completely agree over this plan of action but, sadly, the agreement between the two ends there. Both parties agree that they have got to act quickly but none is willing to take the initiative on the economic front of the fight against climate change.

Under the Kyoto Protocol the onus of controlling and bringing down the carbon emissions was on the developed nations with the help of tools like the national carbon registry and the emission permits whereas the developing nations were not obligated to any emission cuts. Now that the talks for a new climate treaty have started to gain momentum the developed nations want the developing countries to reduce their carbon emissions under that treaty. And although the developing countries recognize their responsibility in the fight against climate change they are unwilling to bear the full economic burden of the same.

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