Emissions: China joins India on scrutiny

China supports India in opposing any international “scrutiny” of voluntary actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said the country's top climate change negotiator on Wednesday.
China also sought to continue and expand cooperation with India as negotiations between the developing world and the West headed towards the climate change conference in Mexico later this year, said Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and one of China's lead negotiators at December's Copenhagen conference.
“China and India have a common position on major issues on climate change and we are willing to step up cooperation in forestry, energy efficiency and renewable energy,” he said. “We face common challenges, such as the task of developing our economy, eliminating poverty, improving people's livelihood, reducing emissions and protecting the environment.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Xie also lent support to India's opposition to any international scrutiny of voluntary actions to reduce emissions, which the United States and some European countries are calling for. That, Mr. Xie said, was out of the question, being “an issue of sovereignty”.
“Autonomous efforts must not be subject to MRV [Measurement, Reporting and Verification],” he stressed.
He, however, added that China had agreed to “verification that is non-intrusive” in the interest of advancing negotiations at Copenhagen, and to “reduce mistrust” with the West.
While China and India had initially been opposed to any MRV of voluntary projects, they had agreed to “consultations and analysis” in the negotiations but not to “scrutiny”.
Developed countries, Mr. Xie said, “should be subject to MRV in emission reductions and also in providing technological, financial and capacity building support to developing countries”.
The question of international scrutiny of developing countries' mitigation actions remains a crucial sticking point in talks between the West and the developing world. In its submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last month, the U.S. reiterated its call for “scrutiny” of voluntary actions, though it later changed its position following opposition from India, as The Hindu first reported on February 28.
China and India this week formally “listed” their names as parties to the Copenhagen accord, though many differences still remain in the positions of developing countries and the West.
Mr. Xie called on the U.S. to help bridge the gap and work towards an agreement in Mexico.
He said the U.S “should do more in terms of providing technology and capacity building support”, and its commitments “fell short of UNFCCC requirements and expectations of developing countries”.
“We hope the U.S. will not shift responsibility to other countries,”
ANSHU KUMAR
PGDM 2nd sem

Implementation will take over two years: Moily

It will be more than two years after the Women's Reservation Bill is passed in Lok Sabha for it to be implemented because of the long subsequent legislative and other processes associated with it.
“It will take a minimum of two years. Just like the delimitation process... a commission or a committee it will take two to two-and-a-half years from now. The process is such,” Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily told PTI.
However, he expressed confidence that the reservation of seats and the identification of 181 of the 543 seats for women in the Lok Sabha would be in place “definitely” before the next Lok Sabha elections due in 2014.
Apart from reserving seats in the Lok Sabha, the Constitution Amendment Bill, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, seeks to provide reservation for women in 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in 28 Assemblies.
The principle of reservation of seats for women will also apply to seats reserved for the SC/ST candidates.
The Bill provides for rotation of seats reserved for women every Lok Sabha at the end of the term.
Explaining the process, Mr. Moily said that once the Lok Sabha passed the Bill and the President signed it, it would be sent to all the States for ratification.
At least 14 of the 28 States would have to ratify the legislation for it to become a law. This process, Mr. Moily said, might take about nine months.
Once the States ratified the Bill, Mr. Moily said, the government would have to enact an ordinary legislation — something on the lines of a delimitation law for charting the roadmap of how to go about the process.
The Election Commission would be brought into the picture, and a commission constituted to go about the job of drawing the parameters for delineating the constituencies and earmarking them for women.
ANSHU KUMAR
PGDM 2nd sem

“I kept my word on zero tolerance”

Maintaining that the government was committed to a zero-tolerance policy on human rights violation, Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said he had delivered on the promise. He was referring to the identification of a BSF jawan responsible for killing Nishat, a Srinagar youth, on February 5.
After chairing the Unified Headquarters meeting, Mr. Chidambaram said that after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah brought the matter to his notice, he promised to identify the accused within 48 hours. He kept his promise. “The accused BSF personnel was suspended and handed over to the State police. The commandant has also been suspended. It is now up to the investigating agency to find out who is responsible,” he added.
Mr. Abdullah said the investigation was going on and, when required, the commandant would be also questioned.
“There is no hold-up or roadblock in the matter,” he said, responding to a comment that the Ministry was creating obstacles to handing over the suspended BSF commandant. “So far, we have not made any request to the MHA [Ministry of Home] to hand him over.”
During the two-hour Unified Headquarters meeting and the subsequent meeting with administrative Secretaries of the State government, issues relating to security, construction of tenements, creation of jobs, vacating the buildings by security forces, etc., came up for discussion, the Minister said. “There has undoubtedly been progress on these matters.”

ANSHU KUMAR

PGDM 2 sem