COPENHAGEN – CLIMATE DEAL
December 19th, 2009 by | Posted in News Comments Off on COPENHAGEN – CLIMATE DEAL
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After two weeks of negotiations, a breakthrough has finally been achieved on Friday night at the climate talks being held at Copenhagen, when leaders from the U.S., India, Brazil, South Africa and China came to an agreement to combat global warming.
Manmohan Singh
As per press reports, the United States and countries including India and China, have agreed on a deal which was not legally binding for anyone -neither the U.S. nor developing nations like China. For some members of the summit there was a sense of relief on the agreement on few of the agenda items even though some of the issues were left to be decided in the future.
Actually the developed Western countries were not willing to step up the emission cuts therefore India and China were also reluctant to agree to the same.
When Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Friday morning, Ministers and some Heads of State had been up much of the night attempting to craft a workable agreement without success.
US President Obama said the deal is not legally binding, but will have countries lay out their emissions targets. Each country will list its climate actions and then there will be international analysis afterwards.
Obama said for the first time in history, all major economies have come to take action against the problems arising of the climate change.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh says it’s a good deal for India.
Obama said the US has reached a “meaningful” deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions with four emerging economies, including India, but warned it was not enough to battle climate change. “We have come a long way, but we have much further to go.”
The deal reached by the US, India, China, South Africa and Brazil includes a method for verifying reductions of heat-trapping gases, a senior Obama administration official said.
He said under the agreement, each country also will list the actions they will take to cut global warming pollution by specific amounts.
The deal reiterates a goal that G-8 countries set earlier this year on long-term emission cuts and provides a mechanism to help poor countries prepare for climate change.
The agreement between the US and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries was achieved after Obama held talks with leaders of the four countries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Both Obama and Singh delayed their departure from the Danish capital as world leaders went into an extra night of discussions in a bid to bring about a deal on climate change.
Obama was quoted as saying by foreign agencies that there is a “fundamental deadlock in perspectives” between big, industrially developed countries like the United States and large developing nations.
The summit may yet hold a final plenary session, where the countries will vote the agreement up or down.
The president worked on getting a vote among key nations — including China and India — to approve the agreement before taking it to the wider group for a vote, according to the official.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday left for India after attending the UN Summit for Climate Change in Copenhagen. Hours after high drama, the BASIC countries sealed a “legally non-binding deal” on climate change with the US on Friday night. After the meeting, Manmohan Singh assured India will play an important role in combating emission.
Ravi Matah
Tags: Brazil, China, Climate Deal, Copenhagen, india, Obama, South Africa.
