Developing nations plan emission cuts

Brazil announced that it would reduce its emissions by 38 per cent by the year 2020 as compared to the business-as-usual scenario. It said 80 per cent of this would come from avoided deforestation. Indonesia reaffirmed its commitment to reduce its emissions by 26 per cent from business-as-usual scenario in the same period. South Korea went a step further and said it would cut its emissions by 30 per cent on 1990 levels and not just from business-as-usual scenario.

Japan,apart from formalising its dramatic offer to cut its emissions by 25 per cent,promised to provide US$ 9.2 billion over the next three years for a ‘fast-track’ start-up fund to support adaptation activities in the least developed countries.

India,represented by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh,discussed the series of actions that it proposes to take on both the mitigation and adaptation measures. It reaffirmed India’s commitment to the per-capita principle and informed the participants about its plan to stipulate specific performance targets for sectors like industry,forestry,transport and energy. New Delhi also reiterated its offer to increase the frequency of its National Communication to the UNFCCC to once in every two years.

The representatives at the pre-CoP agreed that there was not enough time to negotiate a comprehensive legally-binding treaty at Copenhagen and therefore it was important to make the ‘politically-binding’ agreement as meaningful and actionable as possible. They were of the view that the political declaration should not be a mere restatement of the first principles but must contain a mandate for the future comprehensive agreement on climate and have operational aspects to it. However,despite intensive discussions,the distinction between a ‘politically-binding’ declaration and the legally-binding treaty that everyone had been hoping for was not completely clear.