‘Don’t accept international scrutiny of climate change steps’

NEW DELHI - India should not accept international scrutiny of domestic climate change measures as it will be counter-productive, ultimately leading to removal of distinction between developed and developing nations, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said Friday.

The CSE said the strategy paper on international verification of domestic climate change mitigation measures circulated by India at Cancun, Mexico, can best be described as a compromise as the proposal is an ill-disguised effort on the part of India to be a deal-maker for the US.

The environment ministry regards the Copenhagen Accord as a grand bargain where developed countries agreed to provide fast track finance ($30 billion) for adaptation in vulnerable countries like Bangladesh and Maldives.

In return, emerging economies like India, China agreed to a regime where their actions would be measured, reviewed and verified (MRV).

CSE director Sunita Narain said it is important to understand that MRV is a tool to remove differences between developed and developing countries.

“Even if our mitigation actions are voluntary and domestic, now they will be both reported and verified. This becomes a backhand way of breaching the firewall between industrialised countries with historical emissions and responsibility to cut emissions and the rest of the world, which needs the rights to development,” she said.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in a recent statement said: “We are certainly prepared to engage in a system of monitoring, review and verification/international consultation and analysis (MRV/ICA) of domestic climate actions, which respects national sovereigntyand we have suggested a set of operational guidelines on how this system will function.”

Climate Change talks are being held in Cancun, Mexico, from Nov 28 till Dec 10.

Ramesh first tabled the strategy paper before the conference of parties at Mexico City, in which the new term ICA was coined for MRV.

He also reportedly proposed that “all countries whose emissions have crossed ont to two percent of world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will take on MRV/ICA”.

“This would mean that there are only six countries who will qualify to be on that list — China, US, Russia, India, Japan and Germany,” he added.