The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Green bond and rivalry with Pak Climate unity takes shape
New Delhi, Aug. 31: When India battles the developed world at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December, it will have a new ally by its side: Pakistan.
Its a bit surprising, actually pleasantly surprising, but on climate-change issues the positions of India and Pakistan are very close, environment minister Jairam Ramesh told The Telegraph in Delhi last weekend.
Ramesh, speaking on the sidelines of a climate meeting organised by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), added: Both countries have acted together to oppose a number of things raised by the developed countries, like the effort to link trade with climate change.
Farrukh Iqbal, a director in Pakistans foreign ministry and key climate negotiator, was at the meeting and echoed Ramesh.
Asked if climate had replaced cricket as a channel for Track II diplomacy between the two countries, Iqbal said: I do not know whether it is Track II or III or whatever, but on many climatic issues the two countries think similarly.
He added: We feel that Annex I countries (40 industrialised nations and the European Union separately) should stick to the decisions finalised in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.
At Kyoto, Japan, it was decided that between 2008 and 2012, Annex I countries would accept legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of around 5 per cent compared with 1990 levels. The US did not sign the accord.
It is now clear that most Annex I countries will fail to meet the deadline. They are now blaming India and China for the continuous rise in greenhouse gases.
Apart from Germany, the UK and Sweden, all Annex I countries have increased their CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2006 rather than reduce them, and are now saying they will not take the cut unless China and India take legally binding cuts as well, which is grossly unfair and illegal, said the CSEs Sunita Narain, a member of the Prime Ministers environmental advisory panel.
Pakistan realises that if India and China are under pressure today, Islamabad could be under the same pressure tomorrow.
Narain said emissions had risen in developed countries despite many of them selling out their emissions to developing nations through the clean development mechanism (CDM) rather than making cuts at home. The CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialised nations to invest in projects that reduce emission in developing countries.
According to the latest CSE figures, cumulative CO2 emissions in the US have been three times those of China and 14 times those of India between 1950 and 2000. Although China has replaced the US as the top emitter, and India is fifth, they are way behind the industrialised countries in per capita emissions.
New Delhi, Aug. 31: When India battles the developed world at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December, it will have a new ally by its side: Pakistan.
Its a bit surprising, actually pleasantly surprising, but on climate-change issues the positions of India and Pakistan are very close, environment minister Jairam Ramesh told The Telegraph in Delhi last weekend.
Ramesh, speaking on the sidelines of a climate meeting organised by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), added: Both countries have acted together to oppose a number of things raised by the developed countries, like the effort to link trade with climate change.
Farrukh Iqbal, a director in Pakistans foreign ministry and key climate negotiator, was at the meeting and echoed Ramesh.
Asked if climate had replaced cricket as a channel for Track II diplomacy between the two countries, Iqbal said: I do not know whether it is Track II or III or whatever, but on many climatic issues the two countries think similarly.
He added: We feel that Annex I countries (40 industrialised nations and the European Union separately) should stick to the decisions finalised in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.
At Kyoto, Japan, it was decided that between 2008 and 2012, Annex I countries would accept legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of around 5 per cent compared with 1990 levels. The US did not sign the accord.
It is now clear that most Annex I countries will fail to meet the deadline. They are now blaming India and China for the continuous rise in greenhouse gases.
Apart from Germany, the UK and Sweden, all Annex I countries have increased their CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2006 rather than reduce them, and are now saying they will not take the cut unless China and India take legally binding cuts as well, which is grossly unfair and illegal, said the CSEs Sunita Narain, a member of the Prime Ministers environmental advisory panel.
Pakistan realises that if India and China are under pressure today, Islamabad could be under the same pressure tomorrow.
Narain said emissions had risen in developed countries despite many of them selling out their emissions to developing nations through the clean development mechanism (CDM) rather than making cuts at home. The CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialised nations to invest in projects that reduce emission in developing countries.
According to the latest CSE figures, cumulative CO2 emissions in the US have been three times those of China and 14 times those of India between 1950 and 2000. Although China has replaced the US as the top emitter, and India is fifth, they are way behind the industrialised countries in per capita emissions.
