Post-Cancun,BASIC nations say time to tackle ticklish issues

The ministers agreed that Cancun had achieved its limited objective of salvaging the climate talks from a near collapse triggered by the disastrous Copenhagen conference of 2009.

With the Cancun conference having achieved a major success in bringing the troubled climate negotiations back on track,four major developing economies the BASIC group feel that it is now time to start addressing some of the more difficult issues that were kept out at the meeting to facilitate an agreed outcome.

Environment Ministers from India,China,Brazil and South Africa BASIC met over the weekend here to assess the outcome of Decembers Cancun meeting and to discuss the way forward for the climate talks being held under the UN process.

The ministers agreed that Cancun had achieved its limited objective of salvaging the climate talks from a near collapse triggered by the disastrous Copenhagen conference of 2009.

But they maintained that the Cancun Agreements,as the outcome from the Cancun meeting was named,could not be a substitute for the Bali Roadmap a reference to the decisions taken at the 2007 climate change conference in Bali,Indonesia which should continue to be the template for future negotiations.

The Bali Roadmap described the essential elements that a future global and comprehensive climate treaty should contain and considered by most countries to be the baseline for negotiations.

The ministers were of the view that some of the elements of the Bali Action Plan that had not been incorporated into the Cancun Agreements should now be back on the negotiating table.

In particular,they said that countries now must start tackling issues of equity,intellectual property rights and trade as they continue to negotiate for a global and comprehensive climate treaty.

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The ministers stressed that there could not be any compromise on defining the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and that a decision in this regard must be taken at this years annual climate meeting in Durban,South Africa.

Some of the countries,notably Japan,Australia and Russia,have ruled out extending the landmark Kyoto Protocol for a period beyond 2012 when what is known as its first commitment period comes to an end.

The Kyoto Protocol requires a group of rich and industrialised countries to mandatorily cut their greenhouse gas emissions by a targeted amount by 2012.

A new set of targets for these countries for a period beyond 2012 is one of the most important elements of climate negotiations.

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Under the UN process,however,decisions can be taken only by consensus and the position of Japan and other countries,as repeatedly articulated at Cancun,has put a big question mark over the continuance of the Kyoto Protocol the only legally binding international instrument as of now to deal with the ill-effects of climate change.