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Delhi Climate Declaration adopted unanimously

The Delhi Declaration on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was unanimously adopted by 169 countries participating in the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change in New Delhi on Friday.

The document focuses on technology transfer and capacity building as demanded by developing nations.

After extended negotiations, the key demand of developed countries for inclusion of 'a dialogue on further commitments by developing countries upon entry' in the Kyoto Protocol was dropped.

The demand had met with stiff resistance from China and the Group-77 developing nations, including India.

In the declaration, parties that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol strongly urged parties that have not to ratify it in a timely manner.

The Kyoto Protocol, which commits a country to the principle of multilateralism in addressing and resolving various issues of global concern, was adopted in 1997 and aims at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Welcoming the consensus on major issues, conference president and Indian Environment Minister T R Baalu said, "It provides a new direction to our common approach to combat climate change."

The declaration, marking the culmination of ten days of nerve-wracking negotiations and hard bargaining, expressed deep concern over the negative impact of greenhouse gases on developing countries.

Seeking to balance the concerns of both developing and developed countries, the document noted that efforts are being made by all to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

Conceding to G-77's demand, it recognised Africa as the region suffering the most from the adverse impacts of climate change and poverty.

An Indian official said the biggest accomplishment of the conference was making the Kyoto protocol's clean development mechanism fully operational.

The CDM will channel private sector investment into 'emission reduction projects' in developing countries to promote sustainable development.

The conference also concluded three years of work for reporting and reviewing emission data from the developed countries.

The meeting also provided guidance to the global environment facility on the priorities for two new funds -- the special climate change fund and the least-developed countries fund.

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