India has reiterated that it is committed to the principle of the U.N Framework Convention on Climate Change, and has indicated that the outcome in Copenhagen must be in consonance with the UNFCC and the Bali Action Plan.

The four elements of climate change - regime, mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology - must have equal priority in evolving a document on climate change. A legally binding document would have in writing, the commitment to provide financial resources and technology to developing countries undertaking climate change obligations, written into it, and thereby would represent a sharing of the burden between developed and developing nations. It is a measure of the current state of global climate negotiations that the only point upon which all nations are likely to agree is that the prospects of an agreement at Copenhagen are far from bright.

The moral and ethical imperative to reach an agreement has never been stronger. Paradoxically though, climate change negotiations have become progressively more difficult even as the scientific evidence underscoring the need for global action has been mounting. The reasons for this difficulty are not in the realm of rocket science. As the realities of the scope and extent of mitigation action required have sunk in, many developed nations have increasingly balked at undertaking the necessary effort.

Global environmental governance has been made subservient to short-term economic interests, particularly in the United States. They have balked at delivering the finance necessary for global adaptation action. Insisting on a rigid intellectual property rights regime as the basis for any climate change related technology transform arrangement, the 'North' has sought to preserve its economic hegemony in emerging green technologies.

The U.S. while rejecting Kyoto Protocol, effectively set itself against the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities” by insisting that it would sign no emission reduction commitment unless the major developing economies were on board. Developing nations on the other hand have become increasingly frustrated as they see the absence of agreement driving them to increasingly tougher choices in development. The more industrialised nations still have considerable room for manoeuvre, though they will face considerable shortfall in the 'carbon space' needed for their development. The rest face the prospect of bearing the brunt of climate change impacts with very little assistance or resources, specifically in the arena of climate negotiations.

Since the Bali summit two years ago, several developed nations, led by the United States, have substantially ignored their responsibility to take the lead in mitigation efforts. Their energies have instead been directed at drawing the entire world into mitigation efforts with specific targets. The distinction between developed and developing nations is constantly sought to be eroded through clever technical stratagems such as a common schedule of mitigation actions by all nations. According to one of the more bizarre proposals, all developing nations would have to specify their low-carbon pathways by signing on to specific, detailed, "ambitious" mitigation targets (formally defined as deviation from business-as-usual), to be specified for every decade.

From the perspective of the economics of development, such specifications belong to the domain of astrology. In Kyoto-Protocol-related negotiations, many developed nations have focussed on delaying specific action on emissions reduction commitments for the next phase that commences in 2013. Several developed nation signatories to the Kyoto-Protocol, led by Japan, have campaigned to scrap the Protocol itself. The disinformation campaign by the advanced nations has reached such heights that the global media have brought the wholesale into the patent untruth that the Kyoto Protocol will come to an end in 2012.

The comprehensive view of the developed nations' agenda suggests that they wish to evolve a global climate mitigation order where their interests are preserved, which will be run on their terms, and will be supervised by them. The developing countries understandably have taken a dim view of such proposals and have been kept busy rebutting them. Meanwhile the core issues of sharp emission reductions by developed nations and concrete progress on finance and technology transfer are increasingly diminishing from sight...

As Xmas dawns this morn, let us remember this man,

Who walked the shores of Galilee

bringing his message

of love and of compassion, of forgiveness and of service

Who was the very embodiment of the brotherhood of man.

Let us never forget in the year ahead

what he lived for

A message of love, a forgiving, all encompassing love

A relentless, reverbrating, resurging love for one and all

A love that binds us all, as mankind,

as one.

The birth of Jesus that we celebrate today

Is an event that celebrates this love in all its forms,

Echoing within that it is the power

that moves us all

That God is Love.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

The Upanishad says: “If there is no peace in the mind of a person, then there cannot be peace in the society, environment, regions and in the world. The air, water, earth and nature will get polluted. It is due to greed for wealth and prosperity that exists in the heart of a human being.

Due to great advancement of science and technology, people from the materialistic, developed countries aim to get prosperous very quickly and have misused and abused nature for their vested interest. The outcome is the green house effect which causes carbon emissions, leading to the hole in the ozone layer, the melting of glacier, de-forestation, and ultimately climate change.

United States of America contributes to 19 percent of total carbon emissions, while China and India contribute 21 percent and 4 percent respectively. India is ready to cut emissions through equitable burden-sharing and is willing to sign on to an ambitious global target for emission reduction. This must be accompanied by an equitable burden sharing paradigm which includes technology transfer, money contribution proportionately by developed countries, sacrifice of greed and above all, the mutual trust and strong resolution based on will power – all this put together can bring nature back to its natural condition. Otherwise the developing countries will bear the brunt of the fury of nature. India should insist that developed nations take the lead with substantial emission reductions, in line with IPCC recommendations. Any non-binding agreement committing all nations without distinction should be rejected.

In a significant intervention at a special session on climate change at the CHOGM summit held in Trinidad, Dr. Manmohan Singh also indicated that India is not in favour of the suggestion that was being pushed by developed countries and aired at the APEC conference recently, that if there was a failure to evolve a legally binding outcome, the Copenhagen conference could settle for a political outcome. Dr. Manmohan said India's view was that "we should not pre-empt the Copenhagen negotiating process”. Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen emphasised on ensuring a balance between the commitments of the developed countries and the obligations undertaken by the developing countries in climate change policies.

Referring to the four components of a climate change response - mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology – Dr Manmohan was empathic that the outcome in Copenhagen should be comprehensive in the sense that "it must cover all the interrelated components" and that "we should resist a partial outcome." There must be balance and equal priority to each of the four components.

Mitigation is important but cannot take precedence over adaptation which poses a great challenge for many countries represented here. Underlining that "science must not triumph equity," Dr. Manmohan said that “climate change action based on the perpetuation of poverty will simply not be sustainable." He noted that the mandate for multilateral negotiations was very clear and unambiguous. "We are to work towards an Agreed Outcome at Copenhagen which would represent enhanced implementation of the U.N. Framework Convention," he said.

Four of the world's major developing countries (India, China, Brazil and South Africa) agreed on a substantive draft declaration listing their "non-negotiable" demands ahead of next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen. This 10-page draft is being conceived as counter to the text that will be released by western countries next week as a possible basis for negotiations, when talks begin on December 7.The countries would never accept legally binding emission cuts on unsupported mitigation actions, international measurement, reporting and verification of unsupported mitigation actions, and the use of climate change as a trade barrier. The four countries have to take a proactive leadership role to handle this serious situation created by dominating developed countries. The draft is anchored in the basic premises of the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan, particularly emphasising the provision of finance and technology to support mitigation actions of developing nations.

The CHOGM summit at Trinidad is an important springboard towards Copenhagen, and is being seen as a platform to consolidate a stand on climate change negotiations. About half the Commonwealth members are island states, many threatened by rising sea levels, causing them to push for an agreement on carbon emissions at Copenhagen.

To be continued.............

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