Consensus eludes rule book for pact on climate change
Indian govt officials, representatives of NGOS at COP24 say progress slow, major disagreements persist
NEW DELHI: Global negotiations underway in Katowice, Poland, to evolve a rulebook for enforcing the 2015 Paris agreement to curb climate change have made little headway a week into their fortnight’s duration amid persisting differences over key issues such as climate finance.
Delegates to COP24, as the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is known, are discussing a 307-page draft rule book that will spell out how various provisions of the agreement kick in to force.
The draft deals with various issues such as periodic reporting of action being taken by the 195 signatories to the accord in meeting the so-called nationally determined contributions (NDCS) they had committed to, how much finance will flow in from developed to developing countries to mitigate the effects of climate change and in what form (bilateral or multilateral loans or grants).
Negotiators in the Polish city are talking about rich countries taking the lead in implementing the agreement and the less welloff taking action in accordance with their capacities.
Indian government officials and representatives of non-government organisations (NGOS) at the COP24 summit said progress has been slow and major disa-
greements still persist on key issues.
“The process is still evolving. On every section of the agreement document, there are disagreements. Differentiation and climate finance are major sore points which will have to be resolved,” said Ravi Shankar
Prasad, joint secretary in the Union environment ministry.
Environment secretary CK Mishra, who returned last week from the negotiations in Katowice , said: “There is good momentum. We are not sure yet if the outcome will be optimum.”
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