His brief is to try to prevent a stand-off between the world's worst polluting nations that could scupper any chance of a global agreement being signed at the conference in Durban at the end of the month.
Observers this week said India's refusal to commit itself to legally binding carbon emission cuts was giving the United States an excuse to play hard ball. India accounted for 6.2% of global carbon emissions last year, the US for 16.4%.
China, responsible for 24.6% of the world's emissions, was also reluctant to take on binding cuts but had a more flexible approach, they said.
"India's hard line is causing a stumbling block. India and China are saying they won't move, so the US is also saying it won't move. The three countries are holding things up," said an observer with an insight into formal negotiations who did not want to be named.
Moosa was working on political solutions outside the formal negotiations in an attempt to shift India's position, another insider said.
After his stint as environment and tourism minister from 1999 to 2004, Moosa went on to expand his green network as a member of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme's Global Environment Ministers Forum. Read the full report here.
Source: Fiona Macleod, Mail & Guardian.
