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Climate change issues facing COP15: The Indian perspective

The world faces year 2009 conscious of the importance of reaching a global agreement on the framework that will govern the international fight against climate change writes Ujjwal Kacker.
“We have the moral responsibility to bequeath to our children a world which is safe, clean and productive, a world which should continue to inspire the human imagination with the immensity of the blue ocean, the loftiness of snow-covered mountains, the green expanse of extensive forests and the silver streams of ancient rivers.”

-Indian Prime Minister, Hon’ble Dr. Manmohan Singh

Introduction

Climate Change has become an urgent and pervasive preoccupation across the globe. It is a global challenge which requires an ambitious global response. India and other developing countries would be among those most seriously impacted by the consequences of Climate Change. Impacts of changing climate are reflected in all sectors of the society. Finding strategies for the adaptation and mitigation to face such changes is a major challenge for countries such as India with a large and fast rising population, extensive and thickly populated coastal zone, large number of agriculture-dependent communities, large and fragile ecosystem and also various socio-economic and political reasons that are hurdles in implementing adaptation measures.

Maintaining securities in water, food and energy is becoming a complicated issue. Major impact of climate change in India is on water. Since national economy still depends considerably on agriculture and related industries that provide livelihood to millions of poor, any set back in this sector will affect all facets of life. Change in seasonality or further extremes in rainfall will affect water availability and may worsen the social issues associated with water allocation. Falling water availability may retard the present industrial growth. Changing frequency and intensity of tropical storms and changes in coastal circulation, sea level and coastal water characteristics may affect life and development activities in coastal zones that are vital in poverty eradication and national economy. Impact climate change on forest environment is a threat to the life of tribal communities depending on forest resources. Abnormal melting of the Himalayan may soon affect the existence of major rivers, wetlands and the deltas, affecting millions of population and the rich biodiversity.

The awareness and concern about climate change is rising and the world leaders recently met at Bonn to discuss and deliberate upon an agreement which they plan to reach in Copenhagen during the UNCOP 15 in December. However, the world seemed no closer to staving off the threat of global warming and its catastrophic consequences. Firm commitment is required from developed countries to agree to significant reduction in their carbon emissions and a pledge to provide technology and finance to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to the ill-effects of climate change. What the world got instead was a rambling, hold-all, long term cooperative action plan that ran into 200 pages with all nations just putting down their wishlists.

Legal Issues to be kept in mind while drafting the Copenhagen Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol has failed to achieve its desired goal and whole world’s eyes are on COP 15 so that a new treaty can be formed which is mutually accepted by all the countries so that the mother earth is saved from further destruction. The main things to be deliberated upon this December would be whether developing countries like India and China also agree to Binding Sectoral Emission Reductions and the second issue which needs to be touched upon is technology transfer and financing from the developed countries so that funds are available with the developing countries which they would use for building and inventing climate friendly technologies.

According to me the following changes must be accepted in Copenhagen Protocol so that the earth is saved from any further destruction. The changes are mentioned as under:

  • The concept of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) must be changed to Green Development Mechanism (GDM). The latter is a much wider term than the former and it would remove the shortcomings of CDM. Under the GDM Annex- I parties to the Convention to undertake the project of quantified emission reductions in non Annex-I parties. Also if rapidly growing industrial economies (RGI economies) like India and China voluntary becomes party to Annex- I they shall be awarded certified emission reductions (CERs) and Additional Reductions Credits (ARCs).

  • Four new panels shall also be created under the GDM which shall directly derive their powers from the Conference of Parties and would be directly responsible to it and no other entity. The panels are described as under:

    • Technical Panel: The role of this panel shall be to set guidelines to quantify the development carried by Annex- I parties in non- Annex- I parties and this panel would also decide upon how much Additional Reduction Credits must be granted to RGI economies in case they undertake GDM projects in other countries.
    • Financial Panel: It shall assist in arranging funding of certified project activities under GDM by setting action targets of emission trading.
    • Social Research Penal: This panel shall have the role of categorizing countries in Annex-I, non Annex-I and Annex AB countries. The last group shall be a new addition in the Copenhagen Protocol and this group shall contain those countries and island states which are most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
    • Research and Development Panel: This panel shall promote the innovation of technology for the reduction of emission and shall also promote and encourage the scientific research & innovation of alternative sources of energy by establishing Green R&D Institutions worldwide.

  • The decision given by the Technical Panel shall be final and legally binding on all the parties, however in case of any dispute the problem shall be referred to a newly created arbitral chamber which shall then adjudicate upon the matter. This creation of chamber is important because Kyoto Protocol does not have a dispute resolution mechanism and the parties had no place to appeal against the decision of the COP.

  • The technical panel shall finalize the threshold limits of emission for each member party and the panel shall also provide grace expansion to each member country but this expansion shall not exceed 10% of the allocated threshold limit. Also, the technical panel shall review the National Allocation Plans prepared by each member states and shall ratify them if they are found suitable or else the panel shall recommend some changes which have to be incorporated by the parties before the final ratification of the plan by the technical panel.

  • Under existing Kyoto Protocol guidelines, procedures, rules are very limited and affected project participants as no opportunity was afforded for the review of Board decisions. It was unacceptable that private entities that see themselves directly affected by administrative decisions of an administrative body have no access to a court or independent tribunal that review these decisions as determinations of the EB are ultra vires as the Board's delegated authority and members of the EB are not qualified, no scientific panel has been created which has been created in green development mechanism. However under Copenhagen Protocol, proper adherence has to be taken care of in green development mechanism by compiling all rules and regulations. The technical panel should be professionalized whereby the orientations of agendas raised during international negotiations are being properly being looked into.

  • GDM regime shall also incorporate the provision to regulate emissions for the Rapid Growing Industrial Economies. This measure removes the frictions that existed between the developing and developed economies and hence universalize the acceptance of this protocol. This protocol also gives incentives to non Annex-I Rapid Growing Industrial Economies to perform the green projects under the GDM.

  • A new concept of action target should be introduced in the Copenhagen Protocol. This target would constitute a legally binding obligation to achieve an agreed amount of GHG emission reductions which would be expressed as a percentage of the country's actual emissions during the commitment period. For example, if a country adopted an Action Target of 2 percent for the period 2013-2017, it would need to demonstrate emission reductions equal to 2 percent of its actual emissions during this period. In this way, an Action Target defines the amount of abatement to be achieved during a commitment period. This differs from Kyoto-style or dynamic targets, which define a level of emissions (or emissions per unit of GDP) to be achieved. Mathematically, an Action Target can be illustrated as:

  • RR = AT x E    (Equation 1)
    To illustrate, suppose Country A agrees to a target (AT) of 5 percent for the year 2015. If Country A's emissions (E) in that year are 100 million tons of carbon (MtC), then the required level of reductions is 5 MtC. According to Equation 1:
    RR = AT x E    Equation (1)
    RR = 5% x 100 MtC
    RR = 5 MtC

  • Under the previous CDM regime every country was free to chose its own action target according to its own wishes but due to the non binding nature of the Kyoto Protocol this action target even if not achieved couldn’t be legally enforced, but under the GDM regime due to the binding nature of GDM, these action targets shall become legally enforceable under the new Protocol.
India’s stand at the UN COP15

Till recently, India’s long held stand is that it’s responsibility on fighting climate change is limited to adaptation. Mitigation if any had to be supported by international finance and enabled by transfer of technology from developed countries as laid out in the Bali Action Plan. The developing countries under the regime of climate change are faced with the trade off of maintaining economic growth to foster their own development and still have to moderate their emissions growth and eventually cut the emissions. The central aspect of technology transfer is the building of local capacity so that local people, farmers, firms and governments can design and make technologies which can be diffused into the domestic economy.

The problem of Financing actually revolves around the technology transfer issues. A prudent and proper incentive structure for technology transfer will also ensure financing as well from the private players. However, the developing countries should follow the model of participatory financing arrangement. The use of micro-credit in financing and building climate resilient models should be followed and emphasized. Further, the financing mechanisms should be free of proliferations from other competing mechanisms.

On the other hand the developed countries have the commitment of reducing the emissions. This they can do through helping the developing countries and also by undertaking necessary reduction measures of their own. However, due to the cost considerations, it is profitable for the developed countries to transfer the technology and actions to a developing country. But this should be carried out in a fair manner and without coercion. Funding should be made in a way that relives of the pressure of development for the developing countries and not the other way round. Only then we shall be able to meet the goals of a climate friendly world.

Conclusion

Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. Human activities that contribute to climate change include in particular the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture and land-use changes like deforestation.

These cause emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main gas responsible for climate change, as well as of other 'greenhouse' gases. To bring climate change to a halt, global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced significantly. However, Kyoto is only a first step and its targets expire in 2012. International negotiations are now taking place under the UNFCCC with the goal of reaching a global agreement governing action to address climate change after 2012.

Climate change requires an urgent action that cannot be delayed by the current economic situation. It is necessary to reach a global and exhaustive agreement in Copenhagen on the post-2012 global climate regime, based on the science, investing in mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and a new and much more consistent financing model for development, and all kept within the bounds of a shared vision on how to achieve a transition towards a low-carbon development pattern, respectful with the environment. The agreement is a good thing to boost private sector investments in the future and, over all, is a milestone in the action needed to save the most relevant value for the human being: to keep the world in the conditions that have allowed our specie to live and grow in this planet. Copenhagen is not the solution but it is a pre condition where we need to succeed

UJJWAL KACKER is a 4th year student pursuing B.Com LL.B (Hons) from Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (Ahmedabad). He was part of the five member student delegation which represented India and GNLU at the International Climate Change Negotiation Competition and Climate Change Congress in the run-up to the UN COP15 at Copenhagen in March 2009. He also made a presentation on India’s stance on climate change at the World Climate Conference organized by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at Geneva in August 2009.
 
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