Hafizzz
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2010
- Messages
- 5,041
- Reaction score
- 0
Climate war: Now, US trying to isolate China
Climate war: Now, US trying to isolate China - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The rift between developing and developed countries further widened at Tianjin, China, with the UN climate negotiations unable to build consensus on what small decisions the UN convention members could possibly agree to as an interim formula at Cancun in December.
The talks and public posturing turned more acrimonious with US trying hard to isolate China and changing its goalposts, demanding that the emerging economies should allow a strong regime of international scrutiny of their mitigation actions.
China is known to be completely averse to any international scrutiny of greenhouse gas reduction actions that it takes without the financial support of the developed countries.
The US, on the other hand, sources said, have now begun asking for parity between the scrutiny of its own actions and that undertaken by emerging economies.
At present, under the UN climate convention, only the rich countries are required to undertake international commitments to reduce GHGs. This is done under the Kyoto Protocol, which also sets up a `compliance' mechanism to scrutinise if the actions have been taken and expected reductions in GHGs achieved. But the US has never signed on to the Kyoto Protocol. Developing countries -- emerging economies or not -- are not required to have commitments and consequently are not obligated to submit their actions for international scrutiny.
The US stance of demanding equal level of scrutiny of mitigation actions of emerging economies is considered a backdoor route of converting the voluntary actions of countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa into international commitments.
The US has also, sources said, asked that the international scrutiny regime should not only review the aggregate effect of the actions of developing countries but penetrate deeper to study sector-level impacts on emissions.
While India is officially opposed to such a move, political flexibility on the issue has always existed in UPA-2. China, on the other hand, is strictly opposed to such intrusive gaze of developed economies.
The attempt to push for a common set of rules for review of rich and poor countries is seen as rewriting the UN convention. Under the Copenhagen Accord, the developing countries, especially the BASIC four, had already made a compromise and allowed international consultation and analysis of their domestic actions funded by their money. But the attempt to lower the scrutiny of US actions to that of the emerging economies has only created a stalemate, which may not be resolved by the time the Cancun meet happens.
One more minister-level meeting of countries is to be held in Mexico in early November before the final negotiations of the year start in November-end.
Ok I see says the blind man.
