Climate Talks Survive Lima, but will Climate?

Newsclick Interviewed D. Raghunandan of Delhi Science Forum on the recently concluded Climate Change Conference held in Lima, Peru. Raghunandan feels that conference ended with no concrete proposals or plans to achieve the goal of 2 degree Celsius. It ended with agreeing just about the bare minimum needed to keep climate talks going for another year. Equity seems to have been forgotten with no decision on how the remaining carbon budget would be shared between the developed nations and the developing ones. With developed countries refusing to cut their emissions sharply, there is very little chance of developing nations like India getting a fair share of even the remaining carbon budget. The only exception is possibly China. Raghunandan feels that India instead of spelling out its larger strategic goals, spent all its energy warding off perceived threats when a simple and firm “NO” would have done. No proactive proposal was tabled by India which would incorporate the twin objectives of meeting the 2 deg C limit and that of equity.