Durban conference: Most successful failure!

LAST Friday in Durban, South Africa, the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCC) ended in an anti-climax. In spite of the 7 billion people of the world waiting patiently to hear the good news of a successful outcome from the climate change talks, there was so little to report.

Ministers of environment and negotiators from 195 countries had gathered there to reach an understanding to cut carbon emissions. The Kyoto Protocol, the only binding climate agreement in the world today, will end next year (2012) and the talks in Copenhagen and Cancun held in the last two years had failed to replace or renew it. Durban was the last chance.

The first debate was about the Kyoto Protocol itself. The rich countries had committed under Kyoto (till 2012) to reduce carbon emissions by 5%. But this time, Japan, Russia, Canada and Australia was reluctant to agree to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol. It may be mentioned that the USA had opted out of Kyoto when it was first agreed to, as India and China were not a part of the 5% cut in emissions.

The second debate was about carbon emissions. The rich countries, especially those belonging to the European Union, wanted China, which is the biggest polluter in the world, as well as developing countries commit to deeper cuts in emission. The rich would continue to stay with their present carbon emissions. They are of the opinion that unless these developing countries reduce their emissions, the world temperatures would continue to rise and cannot be contained within the target of 2 degree Centigrade increase from the pre-industrial temperatures. But the rest said that the pledges of the rich could lead to a 4 degree rise in temperatures.

The third discussion was about money. In Copenhagen, the rich had pledged to give $100 billion a year after 2020 to all poor countries to adapt to climate change But it was not agreed then how the money would be spent, who would administer the fund and from where (public or private sources) this money would come from.

The last issue debated at Durban was on how to protect the forests in the tropics in return for the money generated by carbon credits. Since most of the forests are in countries where governments are found to be corrupt it was alleged that the money would not percolate down to those whose livelihoods depend on the trees. So, in case the money is not disbursed to these people, they may start cutting the trees and thereby reduce the source of oxygen in the world.

Now that no agreement on renewal of Kyoto has so far taken place, there would be no legally binding international deal to cut carbon emissions after the end of 2012. But the rich will try for a deal by 2015 to come into force by 2020. They, however, have many legal and moral obligations to meet before they can move along this road map. The European Union is the lead party to this initiative. Already, 120 countries of the world have backed this proposal.