BASIC countries call on industrialised countries to fulfill their climate commitments

Ministers of BASIC countries—Brazil, South Africa, India and China---have called on rich industrialised countries to step up and fulfill the commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol regime and at Cancun. These commitments—made in terms of emission reduction and provision of financial and technological support for developing countries—are supposed to be achieved by 2020 that is ahead of the operationalization of the Paris Agreement regime. For the BASIC, “progress on the pre-2020 agenda will be the benchmark of success” for the current round of the UN climate talks.
The demand by the environment ministers from the four advanced developing countries that rich industrialised countries need to make good on the gap between their pledges and the actual implementation came just ahead of the European Commission presenting its Green Deal to the EU member states in Brussels. The European Green Deal set 2050 as the target of carbon neutrality for the bloc. Developing countries have argued that past performance of the implementation of commitments do not inspire confidence about the implementation of the Green Deal.

The four advanced developing countries have listed out the issues that need to be resolved at Madrid for the current round of talks being chaired by Chile to be considered a success. “The central mandate of COP25 is to prepare the way for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement in the post-2020 period building upon the climate action efforts under the Convention and its Protocol,” the joint statement by the BASIC ministers states.

A resolution to the negotiations on carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is critical to the success of the talks. The advanced developing countries reiterated the demand for dedicated discussions to assess the progress in the pre-2020 progress and the gaps in implementation that would result in “necessary arrangements to fill those gaps”—both in terms of emission reductions and provision of finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support to developing countries.

Stressing on the need to focus on the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the ministers said that its implementation must be in “accordance with the Convention’s goals and principles, including the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances”.

On carbon markets, the BASIC stressed on the need of ensuring environmental integrity formed the basis of the rules. The ministers said that the rules should ensure balance between the different market mechansims that had been agreed to in the Paris Agreement. Calling for a “smooth transition” from the Clean Development Mechanism, the ministers said such a move would “preserve the integrity and credibility” of the multilateral system and send a strong message to the private sector on their engagement and crucial role in achieving the objectives of the agreement. “Any unilateral measures and discriminatory practices that could result in market distortion and aggravate trust deficit amongst parties (countries) must be avoided,” the statement reads. The demand for the transition of the carbon credits from older regime to the new regime under the Paris Agreement has been a major sticking point in the Article 6 negotiations. This issue continues to be unresolved, and ministers are working to find a possible compromise, that continues to elude.

The BASIC ministers said that the climate action commitments of their respective countries reflects “the highest possible ambition” and which is “above and beyond” the historical responsibilities of these countries. Not backing away from their commitments, the ministers stressed that “the time for action is now, and not next year or thereafter”.