India wins significant support on the issue of emission cuts affecting farmers: Warsaw Climate talks

November 15, 2013

In a development favorable to the developing countries, India has managed to turn the focus of the ongoing climate negotiations in Warsaw (Poland’s capital) on adapting agricultural practices to climate change and not on costly emission reduction measures that would impact farmers directly.
Surprisingly, India’s stance was backed by the United States too. It also found wide-ranging support from other countries, including the entire G77+China bloc.

Why the decision of US is a surprise?

The European Union and other developed countries have been sticking to ensure that climate negotiations focus on reducing emissions in the agricultural sector. On the other hands, developing nations like India, China and a large number of African countries point that emission reduction efforts in the agricultural sector would negatively impact farmers whose population is very large, and they are often the poorest in these developing countries. They also counter that the effort to reduce emissions should be focus on fossil-fuel-based activities that emit carbon dioxide — the biggest contributor to global warming. As paddy fields and livestock are some of the greatest causes of emissions, emission cut in the sector has major implications for India and China.
India and many other countries ensured that the talks remained centered on adaptation instead of mitigation (general term used for emission reduction) and only a report on this specific matter is produced for the countries to discuss in future.

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