Environment ministers from the BASIC countries–Brazil, South Africa, India, China–met in New Delhi over the weekend to coordinate their responses to international climate change negotiations in advance of the 31 January deadline for parties to communicate their emissions reductions strategies to the UNFCCC.
The meeting ended with a joint statement that reasserts their support for both the UN process and the Copenhagen Accord which has a tenuous and uncertain relationship to the global climate regime. The countries call on the Prime Minister of Denmark to convene five meetings leading up to the big, COP 16, meeting in Mexico. But they also indicated their intentions to submit emissions reductions targets by Sunday’s deadline.
Perhaps more significantly was their emphasis on the Accord’s immediate $10bn annual pledge for adaptation in developing countries. In news reports several of the environment ministers pointed to that pledge as a test of developed countries’ seriousness.
On related note, the Guardian reports today that the United Kingdom is contemplating reallocating money from existing overseas aid budgets to finance climate change adaptation. This, of course, is objectionable to developing countries who insist that climate assistance should be above and beyond existing aid.
Things aren’t much better in the United States where the climate envoy Jonathan Pershing said yesterday that the government is “currently looking at the financing in the budget” suggesting that the “fast track” funding is far from immanent.
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