Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 19 • 30th October 2009

India, China Ink Deal to Cooperate on Climate Change

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One month before a high-profile climate change conference in Copenhagen, as global leaders position themselves to be seen as problem solvers and not makers, China and India signed a bilateral agreement pledging partnership to tackle climate change.

The agreement promises continued coordination at international climate meetings and seeks to broaden joint research and development into emissions-reducing technologies, in areas such as wind, solar, forestry and even ‘clean coal’.

The memorandum of understanding was signed in New Delhi on 21 October by India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, and Xie Zhenhua, minister and vice-chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

The signing coincided with a workshop on the two countries’ climate change policies. The workshop also examined how China and India stood to be affected by global warming in similar ways, not least because of their population’s reliance on increasingly fragile water sources that are heavily threatened by the impacts of climate change.

Common interests on climate change between the world’s two most populous nations - from vulnerability to its adverse affects, to the need to restrain emissions while reducing poverty -were a repeated theme in New Delhi.

“Both India and China are collaborating to ensure a fair and equitable outcome at Copenhagen,” said Ramesh, according to a report by Bloomberg. “There is virtually no difference in Indian and Chinese negotiating positions.”

Xie, for his part, noted that “India and China are most vulnerable to climate change.” He noted that both countries were in the process of “rapid industrialisation and urbanisation” -which are linked to increased carbon emissions - and expressed confidence that both would “make a positive contribution to Copenhagen.”

Both ministers promised to cooperate in Copenhagen. Ramesh called the accord an important step in Sino-Indian relations, reports Xinhua.

The agreement, which is available on the Indian environment ministry’s website (http://moef.nic.in/index.php), will be valid for five years. Apart from establishing diplomatic processes for exchanging views on international climate change negotiations and domestic policies, few of its provisions entailed specific action, calling simply for enhanced cooperation and information exchange on a range of issues, from supporting adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change to developing green technologies and better forest management.

In a nod to the ongoing UN climate talks, the agreement stressed that “developed countries should take the lead in… reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and providing financial resources, technology transfer and capacity building support to developing countries.” It stated that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol remained “most appropriate framework for addressing climate change.”

The Kyoto Protocol, which was never ratified by the US Congress, includes binding emission targets for industrialised countries, but not for developing ones such as the rapidly growing economies of China and India.

The US and the EU, as well as other developed countries, are pushing for a departure from this approach in the successor agreement, with binding caps for emerging economies as well.

China and India have rejected these demands, arguing that such legal limits would unjustly inhibit their economic development. They have, however, announced national plans to decrease carbon emissions per unit economic output.

Although China recently surpassed the US as the world’s leading carbon emitter, its per capita emissions levels remain substantially lower than those in the West. Indian per capita emissions levels are significantly lower than more-industrialised China’s.

Xie and Ramesh reiterated calls for developed countries to step forward with bold emissions cuts and promises of financial and technology transfer, blaming their failure to do so for the diminishing hopes for a far-reaching deal in Copenhagen (see related story, this issue). By signing the bilateral cooperation pact, the ministers hoped to send two signals to developed countries: one, that they were indeed doing their part to combat climate change, and two, that they are a force to be reckoned with as governments around the world race to gain a foothold in the production of emissions-reducing technologies.

The Indian minister’s repetition of longstanding views matched New Delhi’s furious denial of media reports published days before recent meeting that Ramesh, in a confidential memo to the prime minister had recommended that India accept binding emissions targets even in the absence of guarantees of money and technology. This would have represented a shocking shift in India’s negotiating position.

Ramesh said that the reports distorted his message. In a 20 October statement, he said that while “some flexibility in India’s stance” was possible, “India will never accept internationally legally binding emission reduction targets or commitments as part of any agreement or deal or outcome.” He did say that New Delhi would consider international measurement, reporting and verification of its mitigation actions, but “only when such actions are enabled and supported by international finance and technology.”

ICTSD reporting; “China, India sign agreement of co-op on climate change,” XINHUA, 21 October 2009; “China, India Sign Climate Change Cooperation Accord,” BLOOMBERG, 21 October 2009; “Jairam for major shift at climate talks,” TIMES OF INDIA, 19 October 2009; “India-China Partnership on Combating Climate Change to strengthen bilateral dialogue poses toughest challenge to US and Europe,” INDIA DAILY, 21 October 2009.