News | Climate Change

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Copenhagen-beyond-Stage-set-for-BASIC-meet-in-Delhi/articleshow/5486475.cms

NEW DELHI: With an eye on the climate change conference in Mexico, the BASIC countries are considering ways to mend fences with the small island

states and less developed countries. At the BASIC meeting to be held this week, India is likely to put forward a proposal for a fund to help vulnerable countries to deal with the effects of climate change.

The BASIC meeting in New Delhi will focus on post-Copenhagen scenario. With the group—Brazil, South Africa, India and China—now focusing on climate change negotiations leading to the conference at Mexico, it will need to work out ways in which it can make common cause with the rest of the developing bloc. There has been a sense that in Copenhagen, the emerging economies or the more advanced developing countries had broken ranks with the G-77. For the BASIC to retain its negotiating strength it will need to reach out to the vulnerable countries in the developing group.

The fund could serve this purpose. “The details of the fund are still being worked out,” a senior ministry official said. The proposed fund will be bilateral in nature and not under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change. The fund is unlikely to be a formal set up as that would require setting up of structures. Instead each of the four countries—Brazil, South Africa, India and China—will co-ordinate their climate related aid to vulnerable countries.

The idea of a fund is being proposed by India, and is likely to gain currency with both Brazil and South Africa. Both these countries have been re-evaluating the Copenhagen Agreement and its implications. South Africa has been having discussions with members of the African group. Brazil too has been making efforts to build bridges with other Latin American countries. A fund like the one being proposed by India will find acceptance of these two countries. Brazil is likely to agree to such a proposal especially as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had at Copenhagen committed to contribute funds for less developed and vulnerable countries.

The underlying presumption during the eleventh-hour negotiations at Copenhagen was that the Accord would be followed by decisions by the Conference of Parties. The COP is the association of all countries and is the highest decision making body in the UNFCCC system.

An adoption by the COP would have make it possible to operationalise all aspects of the Accord, including finance, technology and REDD. These are critical pillars of the Bali Action Plan. However, the fact that the Accord was only “taken note of” by the assembly allows for a limited operationalisation, only the emission reduction commitments of the developed countries and actions of developing countries under the Copenhagen Accord will be operationalised.

However, for the small island states and the less developed countries that are looking to receive funds, the Accord will not have much meaning. This is likely to increase the sense among vulnerable countries that the BASIC had not kept their interest in mind while negotiating the Accord. The proposal of a fund could address this as well