If this sounds like a harsh judgement that radically differs from the official spin that Durban was a historic success, a victory for climate equity, and an Indian triumph, consider the following.
Durban was the world's last chance to make global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions peak by 2020, and breathe new life into the world's sole legally binding climate agreement — the Kyoto Protocol — beyond 2012, when its first phase ends. Unless industrialised countries of the North reduce their 1990-level emissions by 40-45% by 2020, and emissions start falling rapidly after that, irreversible, catastrophic climate change will become inevitable. But Durban decided to postpone any significant climate action till after 2020, when it would be too late. The decision on extending Kyoto, with stiff quantitative targets for northern countries, was also postponed to next year's climate conference. The protocol will become, in the graphic words of Bolivian negotiator Pablo Solon, a soulless "zombie" until replaced by an even weaker agreement.
Worse, the roadmap agreed four years ago at Bali, which erected a firewall between the North's obligations and the South's voluntary actions, will be abandoned next year. The Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action, established in Bali to strengthen the convention's implementation, will be "terminated". A new process will begin, with considerable dilution of the Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) principle, which maintains that while all countries share a duty to protect the climate, their obligations are unequal: the North must do more than the South because it's responsible for nearly three-fourths of all GHGs accumulated in the atmosphere.
Durban, then, was a disaster for global climate protection. Another four-degree warming will cause devastation, and threaten the survival of a majority of the world's population, including poor, vulnerable Indians. Under the key outcome, ‘The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action', countries will negotiate by 2015 "a protocol, another legal instrument, or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all". This tortuous wording reflects India's last-ditch attempt to reject binding commitments, but effectively shifts climate responsibility from North to South. Durban thus sealed climate apartheid, under which rich polluters evade responsibility, but underprivileged people suffer the worst effects of climate change for which they are least responsible.
Yet, much of our media says India forced a "climate breakthrough" and "regained its position as the … moral voice of the developing world". According to environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, India "restored" equity, including CBDR, "as a central dimension" of the talks. However, the platform does not even mention equity or CBDR. The North wanted an altogether different climate regime from that defined by the 1992 Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan. Any CBDR mention, the North insisted, must be qualified by an interpretation based on "contemporary economic realities", including recent North-to-South power shifts, and China and India's emergence as top emitters. This would have opened a Pandora's Box. Read the full report here.
Source: Praful Bidwai, Hindustan Times.
