Even as the developed nations are moving at a snail’s pace in cutting greenhouse gas emissions as demanded in the Kyoto Protocol, and the biggest polluter US is yet to make any commitment on cutting emissions, the ongoing climate change talks at Poznan in Poland are likely to see countries like India and China in the line of fire of the rich nations for not making some commitments to cut emissions.
The Centre for Science and Environment, which is attending the Poland conference of 187 nations, has pointed out that the strategy of the developed nations is to divide the developing world.
It is dirty politics being played out there, said director Sunita Narain today about the global struggle to meet emission targets sufficient to keep global temperatures from increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.
The emissions at current levels would see temperatures rise by 4 per cent which is unacceptable in accordance with the environment reports of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. At least an 80 per cent cut by 2050 may be needed to reach an acceptable temperature rise of 2 degrees according to the Stern Report on climate change. The UK has already vowed to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
However, the economic disparity between countries like the UK and those in Asia and Africa or South America make the politics of emissions skewed in favour of the rich nations. Hence, the rich nations are trying to regroup the developing countries to get some of them like India, China and Brazil to agree to an emission reduction target while leaving out some others. The main protagonists of the dividing strategy are the US, Europe and Japan.
The Indian government has strongly opposed any talk of commitments for countries like India which are on the threshold of development.
It tore apart a UN report last year which talked of commitments on the part of India saying that it was unfair. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had reiterated a stand taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G8 talks earlier that year when he asked for emission targets that matched the growth figures of each country.
Developing countries want developed countries to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020.
The Annex 1 countries which signed the Kyoto Protocol had agreed to cut emissions by 6 per cent of the 1990 levels.
Developed countries are non-committal on how much further they can go. Japan has asked for a 2050 target, but has not defined a baseline, points out CSE.
It is believed that US President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 levels in the next two decades would now add more weight to the lobby trying to get India and China as well as some Latin American countries also to agree to emission targets.
