Developed world needs to walk the talk on climate change: Prakash Javadekar

NEW DELHI: Ministers from the 17 major emitters, including Indian environment minister Prakash Javadekar, are meeting in Washington DC on Sunday and Monday to address some contentious issues and find a way to ensure a successful outcome at the UN-sponsored climate meet in Paris later this year.

Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, hosted by the US state department, is expected to discuss climate action plans, or intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) as these are known in UN climate parlance, and the provision of finance and technology by rich industrialised countries to developing countries — a point that India will stress on. "Developed world would now have to walk the talk and will have to provide green climate fund to the developing world," Javadekar said ahead of the meeting.

With barely eight months to the crucial Paris summit, the two-day meeting provides an informal forum for countries to discuss and consider different approaches and to hammer out a compromise. This is the first of four meeting that the Major Economies Forum has slated in the run up to the Paris summit in December.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who will chair the UN-sponsored climate negotiations in Paris, is attending the meeting along with Peru’s environment minister Manuel Pugal Vidal, who chaired the negotiations in Lima.

An official statement from the French Foreign Office said Fabius sees this meeting as an opportunity to bring the positions of countries closer together on the key issues that are at stake in the current negotiations.

One of the main issues expected to be raised at the meeting is the nature of the climate action plans submitted so far, particularly by the industrialised countries. "The focus of these INDCs is totally on mitigation or reduction of carbon emissions. There is no reference to contributions in terms of finance and technology, both of which are crucial for a successful and balanced agreement to address climate change," a senior official said. Developing country members like India, China, Brazil South Africa, have consistently maintained that climate action plans must include all aspects of the issue — adapting to the impacts of climate change, emission reduction, finance and technology. Among the industrialised member countries, only the European Union, US, and Russia have submitted their climate action plans, and developing countries like India say that besides "not being ambitious", the information provided "doesn’t explain much"