G-8, G-5 expected to send strong message on climate change

The summit of the G-8 and G-5 here is expected to come out with a strong political message on the climate change issues but developed countries are still reluctant to accept some of the responsibilities like immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and financing technologies.
 
Indian officials engaged in discussions on the issue at the Summit of G-8 with G-5 outreach countries at this mountain town here say that climate change is one of the major agenda items of the discussions and an agreed document was ready to be released by the Major Economies Forum which includes some additional countries.

The Indian delegation is headed by prime minister Manmohan Singh and includes national security adviser MK Narayanan, foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon and PM's special envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran.

The joint declaration to be issued will contain an important political message but the devil is in the details, the officials said stressing the urgency of the issue with just about 150 days left for the Copenhagen summit on climate change.
 
Briefing reporters, Menon said the discussions also covered the current global economic crisis and the need to implement steps decided at the London Summit of G-20 and which have still not not been fully implemented.

Issues, which India has been pressing for like the need for immediate restructuring of the international financial architecture by recasting the global financial institutions and also reforms of various institutions of governance like UN Security Council, have also come up and the summit documents are expected to make a mention of them.
      
Saran said with regard to the global regime for climate change there is agreement among the G-8 and G-5 countries that there was need for a very strong political message to go out giving a stimulus for evolving a conensus on the Copenhagen
summit.

"Our own perspective is we have been pressing that as far as negotiations are concerned they take place under the auspices of United Nations known as the Copenhagen process. Decisions here cannot overtake Copenhagen, which is a multilateral forum.

"We are engaged in coming out with an agreed document of the Major Economies Forum consisting of G-8, G-5 (India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico) and additional countries like Indonesia, Australia, South Korea and European Union. We are coming with a declaration which will be released," he said.

Saran said while there is recognition on the part of all that there was need for a global response to meet the challenges, the G-5 countries feel that the industrialised developed nations have "historical responsibilities" on controlling emissions and to follow the "polluter pays" principle to financing technologies in less developed and poor countries.
 
Developing countries say the climate change problems and the changes that are taking place like global warming are not not because of the current emissions but because of the fact that it is accumulated emissions ever since the industrial revolutions times.

On the basis of "polluter pays" the responsibility of tackling it lies with the developed countries which would translate into very very sharp reduction of emissions. Developed countries want the industrialised countries to agree to reduction of the emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 and to 80 per cent by 2050.
 
"We also say that this should be the basis for more ambitious targets. This will be a important political message. There has to be a sharp reduction in the emissions of developed countries--that is 40 per cent by 2020."