Text of the Intervention made by Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Shri Prakash Javadekar during Major Economies Forum meeting at New York on 22nd September, 2014
Madame Chair and Excellency’s
We had very fruitful discussions yesterday and would like to carry it forward from there.
Differentiation IN INDC
· We must remember that the new agreement including the INDCs is evolving under the convention – the basic principles and provisions of the convention will apply to all aspects of the INDCs.
· To be consistent with the Convention, ‘contributions’ have to be understood in a differentiated manner that distinguishes between Annex I and Annex II parties commitments and non-Annex I actions: Annex I Parties should have “nationally determined” economy-wide mitigation commitments. Annex II parties should continue to have commitments to provide the finance and technology support to developing countries. Therefore, Annex II parties should make their domestic preparations, in particular on their commitments on finance and technology support to developing countries in addition to their commitments on emission reductions.
· The “national determination” of “contributions” must strengthen the existing commitments under the Convention for Annex I Parties and reflect the diversity of national conditions and circumstances for non-Annex I Parties.
· It needs to be highlighted that the concept of “nationally determined” as applied to mitigation has to be guided by the Convention principle of developed countries taking the lead and in a comparable manner, consistent with science demand.
Therefore, Annex I Parties should increase their pre-2020 ambitions first, with a view to setting the ambitious starting point and reference level for determining their post-2020 contributions.
· Non-Annex I parties INDCs will be “nationally determined” and their ambition levels will depend on the extent of the finance, technology and capacity building support by Annex II Parties. For non-Annex I Parties, “national determined” contributions with respect to adaptation, mitigation, finance, technology support, capacity building, and sustainable development, would reflect the diversity of their respective national development conditions and circumstances. It should also take into account the fact that their main priority is socio-economic development and poverty eradication, as recognized in the Convention.
· In this context, the implementation by Annex II developed country Parties of their respective commitments relating to finance and technology transfer under Article 4 of the Convention will be an essential pre-requisites and foundation for enhancing the actions and contributions of developing country Parties to avoid or reduce their emissions and to adapt to climate change even as they pursue goals of sustainable development and poverty eradication.