CB BureauThe participants at the UN climate conference in Cancun
finally reached a ‘settlement’ and decided to set up a $100 billion
Green Fund to fight global warming.
The Green Fund is expected to mobilize
$100 billion per year by 2020 and will be given to developing countries for
adaptation and mitigation purposes.
India described the development as an important step
forward, but there was no agreement on extending the landmark Kyoto Protocol on
emissions cuts beyond 2012. The two-week-long conference ended on December 11
with Cancun Agreement, which seems promising for finance and technology, but
does not give much hope to combat climate change.
The developments at the conference include a broad agreement
on technology-sharing mechanism that will ensure that poor and vulnerable
countries are able to access green technologies easily and in a cost-effective
manner.
One section of the activists is praising environment
minister Jairam Ramesh’s role at the Cancun conference, while others call it a
failure as his proposal for a monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) regime was
rejected.
Apparently, Ramesh is pushing a few boundaries for
improving environmental awareness. This time, he has broken official protocol by
agreeing to a legally binding agreement that is non-negotiable. This is in
stark contrast to the strict instructions by the cabinet.
Ramesh proposed legally binding emission cuts from all
countries including developing countries. India had support from the BASIC
group (India, China, South Africa and Brazil) in this regard. Till now, India
and China were gunning for having voluntary cuts for developing countries. With
the changed scenario, the BASIC group seems to be divided and the G-77 countries
want legally binding emission cuts for all developing countries.