Lima draft deal would lead to weaker agreement in Paris: CSE

LIMA: India has not gained or lost anything in the short term from climate talks here, but will lose in the longer term as the draft deal reached would lead to a much weaker agreement in Paris, triggering increase in extreme weather that will affect billions of poor people globally, a leading Indian advocacy group said.

Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment ( CSE) said the the outcome of the Lima conference will not result in an effective climate deal in Paris next year.

"'Lima Call to Climate Action' is a major setback for an effective climate deal in Paris in 2015," said Chandra Bhushan, CSE's deputy director general who has been attending the deliberations here in the Peruvian capital said after Negotiators today adopted a compromise draft for national pledges to cut global carbon emissions.

The compromise reached following marathon UN climate talks that according to India addressed all of its concerns and paved way for a new ambitious and binding deal to be signed in Paris next year to combat climate change.

"Bad for India. Global warming will increase, India may see more extreme weather events which will affect its poor," the centre said in a statement.

"The principle of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capability ( CBDR), the cornerstone of climate negotiations, has been further diluted and compromised, leading the way for developed countries to continue their high emissions," Bhushan said.

CSE director general Sunita Narain said: "The Lima agreement will further erode the differentiation between developed and the developing countries. The burden of tackling climate change will decisively shift to developing countries making their efforts towards poverty reduction and sustainable development difficult and expensive."

Developed countries have not pledged to reduce their emissions from now till 2020. They have also not given any concrete assurance to provide finance and technology to the developing countries, the centre said.

"Every country can now decide what they want to do to reduce their emissions. But they will not be asked to explain how their efforts are fair and ambitious. They will also not face any rigorous assessment process ahead of the Paris summit," he said, adding the conference will be remembered for "bad process, non-transparency and non-inclusiveness".

Bhushan said the draft deal has further widened the trust gap between the developed and developing countries.

"The final agreement only postpones the inevitable - a big fight next year in the run-up to the Paris meeting and eventually, a weak deal that will take the world to a 3-4 degree centigrade temperature rise, risking the lives and livelihoods of billions of poor people across the world," he said.