NEW DELHI, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The BASIC group of countries -- India, China, Brazil and South Africa -- called for specific issues to be addressed before December's climate conference in Durban, South Africa.
In a statement at the conclusion Sunday of a BASIC meeting in New Delhi on climate change, ministers from the four countries said the agreements made during the Cancun, Mexico climate change conference last December couldn't serve as a substitute to the Bali Road Map.
They were referring to the decisions taken at the 2007 climate change conference in Indonesia and said the plan map should continue as the guide for future negotiations, the ministers said.
"There were a number of issues in the Bali Road Map that had not been presented in the Cancun agreements, in particular the issue of equity, intellectual property rights and trade which are all very important to BASIC countries," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters Sunday, Press Trust of India reports.
Related
"We will make every effort to bring these issues back to the main stream discussion," Ramesh said.
Ramesh acknowledged that the BASIC nations had differing views on a number of issues, including levels of per capita income and economic development as they relate to emissions, and sources of greenhouse gases, The Hindustan Times reports.
For example, South Africa wants 2025 as the peak year for emissions; India and China disagree. While Brazil wants funds to reduce deforestation, the other BASIC countries favor funds for protection of forests.
Crucial to an agreement at Durban in December, the ministers said: a commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, a commitment review mechanism for developed and developing countries and strong emission reduction targets for the developed world.
Ramesh called for negotiations in 2011 leading up to Durban to be continued "in a spirit of inclusiveness and transparency."
Regarding the $30 billion Fast Start Finance agreed upon at the Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009 climate change conference to help poor nations most at risk of climate change, Ramesh said it was "highly regrettable and most unfortunate" that there hardly has been any significant disbursal.
"The continued inability to deliver on fast track finance to my mind is a betrayal of the trust and the betrayal of a grand bargain at Copenhagen," he said.
Unless countries begin to see money flowing, Ramesh said, the atmosphere at the Durban meeting "would continue to be clouded with suspicions."
