MEET Copenhagen accord won't be legally binding: Basic countries
India, Brazil,
China and South Africa, together called the Basic countries, on Sunday
said the Copenhagen Accord was only a political agreement and not
legally binding as being argued by the developed countries.
The four
countries also said they will announce their plans to check greehouse
gas emission growth by January 31, as agreed in Copenhagen.
This is in line
with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's letter to Danish Prime Minister
Lars Lokke Rasmussen stating that the accord was just a "political
agreement" and not "binding".
Rasmussen had
urged all head of states in his New Year letter to convert the
Copenhagen Accord into a legally binding document, a view backed by US
and Europe.
Singh discussed
the accord and prospects of future climate negotiations with the
environment ministries of the Basic countries for 45 minutes on
Saturday.
"The accord is
not a standalone document but is an input for the two track
negotiating process," said Environment and Forest Minister Jairam
Ramesh on Sunday after a seven-hour meeting with his Basic
counterparts. "We expect the negotiations on these tracks to conclude
successfully in Mexico in December 2010."
The Accord was
agreed to by 26 countries, including US, Europe and Basic countries
but the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
a body of 193 countries, had only taken note of it. Some countries
like Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan and Bolivia had termed the accord as a
document of powerful countries aimed at killing the Kyoto Protocol,
which had put the blame, and therefore the responsibility for cleaning
up the mess, on developed countries.
On Sunday, the
Basic countries re-affirmed their commitment to the differentiated
responsibility for rich and the developing world and asked the rich
countries to release US $ 10 billion in 2010 for the poorer nations to
adopt green technologies.
South African
Environment Minister Buyeliwa Sonjica said that Basic countries were a
part of the larger grouping of least developed and developing
countries, G-77, and would inform the group of 133 countries about its
deliberations.
Also to shame
the richer nations and thus force them to fund climate mitigation in
poorer nations, the Basic countries discussed the possibility of
providing financial and technical aid to the poor nations.
"We have decided
to support the least development nations in adaptation," said Carlos
Minc, Brazil's environment minister. The modalities are to be
finalized at next meeting of Basic countries in Cape Town in South
Africa in April.
The Basic
countries also asked the US to take a leadership role in climate
change talks and ensure an agreement is signed in Mexico. "They (US)
had been lagging behind in Copenhagen," said Sonjica.
India will give
the UN a plan to cut emission intensity by 20-25 per cent of the GDP
by 2020 as a voluntary mitigation action by January 31. But there was
no decision yet if India should also tell the UN how it plans to meet
the target.
"There is some
opposition to India submitting a roadmap as it may be seen as
providing too much to the western world," said an Environment Ministry
official.
