Failure at Bali talks haunts Poznan

Business Standard (India): The global climate change talks, the latest round of which started yesterday at Poznan in Poland under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are already confronting first of their failures since the participating countries chalked out the Bali roadmap in December 2007. The Adaptation Fund launched by the UNFCCC following the talks at Bali is yet to be operationalised and this has been one of the criticisms raised at the conference, mainly by the 178-member Global Environment Facility, an independent group of governments, NGOs and private sector, delegates from India say.

The delegates see finances emerging as one of the key issues at the conference, especially in the context of recession. The other key issue would be whether developed countries or Annex 1 countries, which are signatories of the Kyoto Protocol, agree to bring down their emissions of six greenhouse gases by 25 per cent to 40 per cent (1990 levels) in two decades. The issue of funds for adaptation and mitigation is also on the agenda of the Indian delegation, some of whose members are already in Poznan.

According to the environment ministry, the government already spends 2 per cent of its GDP on adaptation or measures to protect people from the impact of climate change. It has said it would be pressing for additional financial assistance…

Posnania (Poznań), ca. 1617, view from north, Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Theatri praecipuarum totius mundi urbium liber sextus. tome IV