BASIC countries to meet ahead of crucial Copenhagen Accord deadline

Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China are to meet in New Delhi later this month to co-ordinate their position ahead of the January 31 deadline for countries supporting the Copenhagen Accord to submit formal emission targets and climate change action plans.

The so-called BASIC bloc of countries, which brokered the controversial draft version of the Copenhagen Accord with the US during the frantic final hours of last month's Copenhagen Summit, is seeking to cement its alliance ahead of the next round of UN-backed negotiations in Bonn in the spring.

Speaking late last week, Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that he had invited his counterparts from the BASIC countries to attend a meeting in New Delhi from January 25-28.

The countries are expected to agree to put forward their existing plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions to be included in the annex to the Copenhagen Accord that features commitments from developing countries. These include a pledge from China to cut its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 per cent by 2020, a similar commitment from India to cut its carbon intensity by 20 to 25 per cent by the same date, and promises from Brazil and South Africa to cut emissions by 36 per cent and 34 per cent respectively on business-as-usual levels by 2020.

Significantly, Ramesh told the Economic Times of India that they will also discuss how to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen Accord. "The main challenge is that an agreement by 29 countries needs to be converted into one by 194 countries," he said.

During the final hours of the negotiations, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Sudan all opposed the agreement, and Cuba has already told the UN that it will not sign up to the accord. However, China has considerable close relations with each of the countries opposing the Accord and it could yet use its influence to encourage them to accept the agreement.

The BASIC countries are also expected to agree their position ahead of the Bonn talks, where the UN organisers are hoping to deliver further progress on many of the details debated at the Copenhagen Summit, including how to raise climate funding, enhance forest protection and independently verify emission reductions.

However, anyone hoping the BASIC negotiators will adopt a more conciliatory tone after being widely criticised for scuppering any chance of a more ambitious deal being agreed in Copenhagen, is likely to be disappointed.

Speaking at an address to the Aspen Institute of India, Ramesh hailed the alliance between the BASIC countries as a "watershed" moment that highlighted the growing influence of emerging economies in general and China in particular.

He said the commitment from industrialised countries to provide $100bn (£61bn) a year in climate funding without wringing significant concessions out of emerging powers as a significant victory, and signalled that the close links with China were set to continue.

His comments came as China's ambassador for climate change, Yu Qingtai, struck a similarly defiant tone, telling the Sydney Morning Herald that China would not be bullied by rich countries into accepting more-demanding emission targets

"During and before Copenhagen there was a concerted effort by a small group of developed countries who believed that by joining hands [they could] force us to go beyond what we are responsible for or capable of," Yu said. "But Copenhagen proved that those attempts will not be successful. In fact they should have known better. So what the developed countries need to learn from this whole process is to make up their minds whether they want to pursue confrontation or co-operation with China."