Poor nations have been sparring over emission cuts without realising that the fight is a deliberate creation of rich countries

Many years ago, in a desperately poor village in Rajasthan, people decided to plant trees on the land adjoining their pond so that its catchment would be protected. But this land belonged to the revenue department and people were fined for trespass. The issue hit national headlines. The stink made the local administration uncomfortable.

The legacy of the "imperfect deal" — as it was called by all participants — at the Copenhagen climate conference two years back continued in the Durban summit last December.

NEW DELHI: Ministers of South Africa, Brazil, China and India - the BASIC group - will meet here on February 13-14 to chalk out a joint strategy for the post-2020 global climate regime.

India and France should collaborate to evolve acceptable solutions for the emission reduction regime to be adopted in 2015

Following meetings with both minister for aviation Ajit Singh and environment minister Jayanti Natarajan on the controversial carbon emissions levy that EU has introduced, Connie Hedegaard, European Union climate action commissioner, claimed the tax is inevitable “as aviation is increasing and emissions from aviation are also increasing.”

India, along with the international community, led by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICOU), has fiercely opposed the tax introduced from January 1 with airlines accusing the EU of having taken an extra territorial decision.

In the run-up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, India continues to emphasise the principle of equity as forming the foundation for climate change negotiations.

“I would like to reiterate that the bottom line remains equity,” said minister of environment Jayanthi Natarajan addressing a special session on Biodiversity at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. Ms Natarajan’s statement came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had endorsed her stand at the UNFCCC meet at Durban conference

NEW DELHI: In one of his most emphatic public statements reaffirming the return of 'equity' in India's climate change stance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said global cooperation on climate change

Climate change is not a problem of present deeds but of past contributions. The world has run out of atmospheric space - and time. Will the rich, who contributed to emissions in the past and still take up an unfair share of this space, reduce emissions? Or will emerging countries be told to take over the burden? Sunita Narain throws light on this big question, in the light of the recently concluded climate change conference in Durban.

This paper examines the outcomes from Durban by analysing the new negotiating structure set up for the next decade, the prospects from securing a Kyoto arrangement and understanding why the Durban decisions are not sufficient to stay below the 2°C limit stated in the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancun Agreements.

The UN has launched an online database that showcases the strategies adopted by global majors like Microsoft and Starbucks to adapt to climate change and at the same time ensure an increase in thei

Pages