Climate Goal Is Supported by China and India [!!!]
By JOHN M. BRODER
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreement reached in December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up.
The two countries, among the largest and fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, submitted letters to the United Nations agreeing to be included on a list of countries covered by the Copenhagen Accord, a three-page nonbinding statement reached at the end of the contentious and chaotic 10-day conference.
China and India join more than 100 countries that have signed up under the accord, which calls for limiting the rise in global temperatures to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, beyond pre-industrial levels...
The inclusion of China and India has only a minor practical effect but will provide a boost for the agreement’s credibility.
“After careful consideration, India has agreed to such a listing,” Reuters quoted India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, as telling Parliament on Tuesday. “We believe that our decision to be listed reflects the role India played in giving shape to the Copenhagen Accord. This will strengthen our negotiating position on climate change.”
Mr. Ramesh confirmed India’s action in an e-mail message.
India sent a letter on Monday to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body responsible for international climate negotiations, stating its intent to join the Copenhagen Accord.
China’s chief climate change negotiator, Su Wei, submitted a single-sentence letter saying that the United Nations “can proceed to include China in the list of parties” signed up under the accord.
China has said it will try to voluntarily reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide per unit of economic growth — a measure known as “carbon intensity” — by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. India set a domestic emissions intensity reduction target of 20 to 25 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels, excluding its agricultural sector.
[Hey, this looks pretty in line with the class simulation. P.S. Need we remind the developed countries that these are voluntary targets? We don't have to do them -- we're not historically responsible for these emissions -- but we will take them on as national actions. And we'll be accountable to our own parliament, thank you very much. =P]
The United States pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 17 percent by 2020 compared with 2005, contingent on Congress’s enacting climate change and energy legislation.
Negotiators are trying to write an enforceable global climate change treaty, but there is little expectation that such an agreement will be reached this year. The European Union’s climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard of Denmark, said Tuesday that nations should now aim to reach an agreement in 2011 at a United Nations conference in South Africa, rather than this year in Mexico.
[Maybe South Africa rather than Mexico should be the next Stanford trip? We have a Stanford center in S. Africa ... ]
Times of India, on the other hand, emphasizes in their reporting the "conditional association" with the accord.
India okays Copenhagen Accord, with riders
After three months of confabulation within the government, India on Tuesday allowed a conditional association of its name with the Copenhagen Accord. The accord, which had been negotiated by 29 countries including India at the Danish capital in December 2009, had become a bone of contention with some countries refusing to accept it while the BASIC countries distanced themselves from the contentious document.
While the US and other developed countries were keen that key countries, such as India and China, should back the accord to the hilt, the two along with South Africa and Brazil had instead indicated that the primacy of the formal UN negotiations should be maintained.
Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh told TOI, "We have made the conditional association and I have been informed by the Chinese government that it too will associate itself with the accord in a similar fashion as India."
The BASIC countries had stepped away after an assessment that the accord, if operationalised immediately, as recommended by the rich countries, would tilt the balance of international climate negotiations against them. They demanded that the accord, which only a select group of countries had been party to, should either be treated as a mere guidance note or be taken through the formal negotiations and be accepted by all the 180 plus countries in order to gain greater legal status -- something that failed to happen at the Copenhagen meet.
Now India has reiterated that "the accord is meant to facilitate the ongoing negotiations in the two tracks (of the formal UN negotiations)" and that it is not a legally binding document. India has also demanded that its name be used to back the accord only if all its conditions, including the fact that the pact will not become a new track of negotiations or a template for outcomes, is indicated in the Copenhagen Accord.
So it goes...
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/science/earth/10climate.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/India-okays-Copenhagen-Accord-with-riders/articleshow/5665061.cms
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