The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nation Frame work Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol opened on 26 November 2012 and continued until 8 December 2012 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha in Qatar.
The talks in Doha closed with a historic shift in principle but few genuine cuts in greenhouse gases.
On 8 December 2012, Almost 200 nations extended a weakened United Nations plan for combating global warming until 2020 with a reserved set of measures that would do nothing to halt rising world greenhouse gas emissions.
The world in Doha Climate Talk agreed to the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, starting 2013 by agreeing to a roadmap for binding world to a new global legal compact on climate change by 2015 that would become operational by 2020.
Environment ministers of different extended until 2020 the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges about 35 industrialised nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions until the end of 2012. That keeps the pact alive as the sole legally binding climate plan.
However, in an unparalleled incident, two of the most powerful countries — the US and Russia decided to discard parts of the deal gaveled through using diplomatic guile by host Qatar.
The US took on 192 countries to reject the principle of equity and the application of the principles of the UN climate convention to the post-2020 global deal.
Switzerland too joined the US and demanded its reservations and rejection of some of the decisions be put on record.
The Doha outcome — adopted on 8 December 2012 is a tricky balance among three different streams of climate negotiations. It secures a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol since it permits the unresolved issues of the last five years like adaptation and finance for poor countries, technology to be carried forward into future talks and creation of a framework to hammer out a new global compact by 2015.
Highlights of the Doha Climate Talk
• Over the past two weeks from 26 November 2012 onwards the gathered nation made several compromises on each front to achieve a balance between competing demands to ensure that each stream of talks is concluded in parallel.
• The poor nations like the small island development countries and the least developed countries got the least out of the deal.
• There is neither a firm commitment for them on how the finances would be provided to fight climate change between now and 2020 and their cap on emission reductions during the eight-year period.
• For India, it was an instance of respite as it got its central plank - the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) — re-inserted in the talks after it had been shut out of the negotiations in 2009 and 2010.
• Its concerns about high costs of intellectual properties in green technologies and the attempt by some developed countries to take unilateral decisions found weak references.
• The 27-member European Union, Australia, Switzerland and eight other industrialised nations agreed to the binding emission cuts by 2020. Each signatory had already legislated individual targets.
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