Finance Rules the Key towards Deal at Copenhagen: AWGLCA Chair Iterates

Centad and few other NGOs meet today the AGW-KP chair regarding multifarious issues. The most hotly discussed one is the targets for the Annex1 and the non-Annex-1 targets. The chair expressed his concern over the apparent non-movement of the discussion regarding the targets. It seems that the parities have actually hit a brown area. The chair indeed mentioned that the Indian submission was a new idea of differentiation. However much is left for discussion for coming to any formidable position. There were couple of issues are moving around the table to be discussed. First the targets, whether it should be range based i.e. 25-40 percent or it should be at least 40 percent.

In one of the very bold and progressive gesture, the Indian delegation as part of the presentation on the article 1(b)ii of the Bali Action Plan, suggested for a reduction of at least 40 percent compared to the 1990 level by the industrialized countries by 2020. This is a major step towards regional alignments. Because this might soon evolve as the official position of the G77 and China. Furthermore, the Indian delegation during discussion on the topic of Article 1 (b)i of the Bali Action Plan proposed for an aggregate level of emissions targets. This is a new idea they have proposed and the parties are yet to react on it. But certainly this has gained momentum among the civil societies and they are seriously considering it.

In a meeting with the Chair of the AWGLCA as part of the ENGOs’ meeting with the Chair, Centad asked about the views from the Chair about this new classification of aggregated target. The chair opined that the issue is still very nascent but interesting one. Probably in future there may be a situation of such an issue be taken up for discussion in future. The Chair also opined that the crux of the matter is the finance. Once the issues related to finance gets unpacked, then the road to dealing the other issues will be easier.

As part of the discussions on AWGLCA contact groups, the Indian delegation pointed out that any financing on climate issue has to be based on the provisions of the Convention. Responding to the issue of public and private funding raised by the Japanese delegation, India categorically said that the private funding is only going to be made available only when there is a commercial interest involved in it. Now given the nature of the climate investment, if there are no such returns, then no climate investments are going to materialize. So there is an urgent need for getting funds from the public source. Also on the question of Switzerland proposal on having a tax on carbon, the Indian and the Brazilian delegation categorically asked about the issue of historical responsibilities. The carbon tax based system does consider the current emissions but the historical responsibility component of the Convention is neglected in the tax mechanism. On the issue of various mechanisms of generation of funds, We have collated the latest proposals that are on table for further considerations. In fact this collation was used by the NGOs for further deliberation.

Proposals Currently on Table for Discussion

Source: Collated from the various submissions.

Therefore once we turn back about the advancements and the actions, we see a clear momentum of actions. However turning those actions into a negotiating text is the real job to be done. The involvement of the Civil Society becomes more crucial as of now onwards. In the conversation with the AWG LCA chair, the ENGOs, of which Centad was a part, expressed the opinion of getting involved with the informal consultations meeting during the forthcoming sessions. The chair was being suggested by the Civil Society to consider the alternative ways of organizing such participations. The Chair was certainly in the positive frame of mind on this proposal. We as part of the Civil Society believe this as a major breakthrough for more serious actions in near future.