Developed countries told to meet Kyoto financial commitments

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter The Basic (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) bloc yesterday urged developed countries to address the issues, in particular finance committed in the Kyoto Protocol (KP), at a meeting held on the sidelines of the COP18/CMP8 summit at the Qatar National Conventions Centre. Basic representatives said that financial support was at the core of all commitments undertaken in the KP and developing countries badly needed the material assistance, mainly the finance that they had long been looking forward to since the beginning of the first commitment period started in 2010. They said actions should come from developed world on the basis of commitments given under the Kyoto Protocol, Durban Action Plan (ADP) and AWG-LAC (Adhoc Working Group on Long Term Co-Operative Action). Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reforms Commissions of China, Xie Zhen Hua, Head of Climatic Change issues in the Foreign Relations Ministry of Brazil, Anderre Odenbreit Carvalho, Special Secretary in the Indian Ministry of Environment and  Forests, Meera Meherishi and South African Ambassador at Large to COP17/CMP7 Nozapho Mxakapo Diseko explained their countries’ positions on the issue of financial commitment to be made by developed countries. Indian ambassador to Qatar Sanjiv Arora was also present. “China hopes that negotiations based on the Durban Action Plan (ADP) could respect the principles of equity, different responsibilities and respective capabilities,” said Xie, who is also the head of the Chinese delegation attending the fortnight-long meeting ending today. The Durban platform which came to the fore at the summit in South Africa last year is assigned the responsibility of preparing a legal instrument acceptable to all parties to the UNFCCC by 2015, the Chinese representative said. “The Doha meeting needs to work out a favourable environment for the ADP for continuing talks. Our understanding is that work on this direction is going somewhat fast and an outcome likely to be appreciated by members is what we are hoping for,” said the Chinese leader. Even while expressing hope about the outcome on a host of issues at the COP18/CMP8, the representatives were doubtful if financial commitments could be made in the next few years owing to the global financial turbulence that had hit the developed world more adversely than many other regions. If some developed countries could not meet their financial commitments on the previously committed schedule, why can’t others intervene to meet the targets, said one of the four representatives. The bloc felt that if some of the developed countries could not meet even the smaller commitments made before the first commitment period how could they undertake much larger commitments, of $100bn every year to counter climate challenges both in the developing and least developed world. The South African representative said even though financial disaster is nothing new to the African continent, there is a feeling that some of the developing countries there have been more successful in meeting the targets and commitments than the developed world. “It needs to be said pledges made by the developed countries are far from enough to meet       climate change challenges in the present conditions.” Along with negotiations, there should be action to address the issues of financial commitments effectively, she added. Another speaker on the panel felt it would not be fair to put pressure on the developed world with long term commitments in such troubled times.