 "Paris pact hinges on successful $100 bn Green Climate Fund: Javedakar to French minister")
Actions of the developing countries, including India, in the run up to the Paris summit of world leaders in Climate Change would be predicated on successful operationalisation of the $100 billion Green Climate Fund, the Union environment, forests and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar told the visiting French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius.
The two held closed door confabulations on Monday about the new global agreement on climate change, which is to be agreed upon in Paris in 2015.
For hosts France, the Paris meet, where heads of states are expected to converge, is an issue of prestige as well as stress considering the failure of the last heads of state summit in Copenhagen in 2009 which had been panned diplomatic failure. Since the 2009 meet, the role of India and China in the climate change negotiations has only risen, more so after the coming together of the Like-Minded Developing Countries group since past three years.
Javadekar, reiterating an aggressive stance on the prickly issue of IPRs on green technologies, also told Fabius, that the Green Funds should be used to buy out IPRs of clean technologies to distribute to poor countries. While for the US the talk of IPRs remains a red-line, the EU too has pushed the negotiations away from the topic.
Prakash Javadekar did not attend a public meeting organised by CII and TERI with the French foreign affairs minister’s on climate change, owing to a protocol faux pass by the organisers. The French minister’s statement at the gathering touched subtly upon differences between the French and other developed countries positions with that of Indian position.
He referred to ‘fair contribution’ by all countries towards global climate change action instead of ‘equitable contribution’. The use of two phrases in the global negotiations have drastically different implications for emerging countries such as India and China with ‘ fair contribution’ being seen as a dilution away from India’s insistence upon equity in the international agreement. India along with China has pitched that the principle of equity must be operationalised in the new agreement to be signed at Paris.
The Paris meeting is to be preceded by the annual UN summit in end 2014 at Peru where a draft negotiating text of is expected to sketch out the broad framework the global deal. In the period between now and the Peru meet, a host of formal UN meetings, bilateral and plurilateral meetings are also slated. Prakash Javadekar will host his first meeting of BASIC countries, which includes China, South Africa and Brazil on August 7-8 in Delhi. The meeting was slated for May but was cancelled at the last moment by the then environment minister Veerappa Moily leading to diplomatic embarrassment.
The two held closed door confabulations on Monday about the new global agreement on climate change, which is to be agreed upon in Paris in 2015.
For hosts France, the Paris meet, where heads of states are expected to converge, is an issue of prestige as well as stress considering the failure of the last heads of state summit in Copenhagen in 2009 which had been panned diplomatic failure. Since the 2009 meet, the role of India and China in the climate change negotiations has only risen, more so after the coming together of the Like-Minded Developing Countries group since past three years.
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Sources said, Javadekar informed the French minister that transfer of green technologies and funds for developing countries from the developed world would be critical to the success of the Paris meeting. The annual $100 billion Green Climate Fund is to be capitalised by 2015 but developed countries have shown reluctance to fill the coffers preferring to advocate use a mix of private investments, loans and reclassification of overseas development assistance as green funds. They have also blocked putting up a clear road-map for capitalisation of the funds.
Javadekar, reiterating an aggressive stance on the prickly issue of IPRs on green technologies, also told Fabius, that the Green Funds should be used to buy out IPRs of clean technologies to distribute to poor countries. While for the US the talk of IPRs remains a red-line, the EU too has pushed the negotiations away from the topic.
Prakash Javadekar did not attend a public meeting organised by CII and TERI with the French foreign affairs minister’s on climate change, owing to a protocol faux pass by the organisers. The French minister’s statement at the gathering touched subtly upon differences between the French and other developed countries positions with that of Indian position.
He referred to ‘fair contribution’ by all countries towards global climate change action instead of ‘equitable contribution’. The use of two phrases in the global negotiations have drastically different implications for emerging countries such as India and China with ‘ fair contribution’ being seen as a dilution away from India’s insistence upon equity in the international agreement. India along with China has pitched that the principle of equity must be operationalised in the new agreement to be signed at Paris.
The Paris meeting is to be preceded by the annual UN summit in end 2014 at Peru where a draft negotiating text of is expected to sketch out the broad framework the global deal. In the period between now and the Peru meet, a host of formal UN meetings, bilateral and plurilateral meetings are also slated. Prakash Javadekar will host his first meeting of BASIC countries, which includes China, South Africa and Brazil on August 7-8 in Delhi. The meeting was slated for May but was cancelled at the last moment by the then environment minister Veerappa Moily leading to diplomatic embarrassment.