http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Politics/Nation/UN-Denmark-get-active-on-Copenhagen-deal/articleshow/5435149.cms

NEW DELHI: With the January 31 deadline drawing close, the United Nations and Denmark have stepped up the effort to get all countries to sign the

Copenhagen Accord. UN Secretary-General ban ki-Moon and Danish prime minister Lars Locke Rasmussen have written to heads of state and government asking them to submit their emission reduction commitments and to take steps to get all countries to get on board.


In the backdrop of this letter, BASIC countries — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — will be meeting in order to work out their strategies ahead of the deadline for submitting their commitments to the UNFCCC secretariat.
A key achievement of the accord was in getting the United States on board. The US had in the run up to the Copenhagen summit declared that they would not be able to provide firm numbers till their domestic legislation pending in the Senate is passed.

There has been no change in the status of the US legislation. The Kerry-Boxer Bill is still pending in the US Senate. The absence of any official statement from Washington about its commitments could present a cause of concern for developing countries. BASIC countries may need to reconsider submitting their own commitments should the US fail to submit its domestic targets to UNFCCC.

The commitments from the US are crucial as it could impact the figures submitted by other developed countries. A failure by Washington to honour the January 31 deadline could well be the unravelling of the Copenhagen Accord.
In their letter, the UN chief and the Danish PM have stressed on the need to step up every effort — bilateral, regional and negotiating groups — to ensure that all countries sign on to the accord.

The January 31 deadline is important for developed countries and developing countries which have announced domestic measures. However, countries particularly small island states and the less developed countries that are looking to receive funds, the January 31 deadline is of little interest.

BASIC countries in working out their strategies will also need to consider how the demands of these developing countries, which are all part of the G-77 and China will be addressed . Though BASIC has emerged as a viable grouping it can’t allow for the developing block to be splintered. Especially if it would like to ensure that the two track process under UNFCCC is kept alive.

There have been concerns within the Indian establishment that there is an effort to convert the Copenhagen accord, which is a non-binding political document, into a legally binding one. The UN, it would appear is not thinking on those terms and it continues to view the Copenhagen Accord as a political document.

Another cause of concern for the government is an implicit suggestion in the letter of the need to strengthen commitments to in order to meet the goal of keeping the temperature goal put down in the accord. But this too could be part of the UN’s attempt to ensure that the December exercise is not a futile one and could be seen as a trust building exercise. The minister of state for environment Jairam Ramesh has maintained that despite its shortcomings the Copenhagen Accord could prove to be a boost to the process.

When the ministers of BASIC meet in New Delhi on January 24, they will need to take a collective decision on the import of the letter, their approach to the January 31 deadline as well as the road ahead to the May/June meeting in Bonn.