A round table discussion between Ambassador Michael Zammit Cutajar, Chair, AWG-LCA of the UNFCCC and senior Indian climate negotiators and other individuals working on this issue in India was held on 24 August 2009 at New Delhi.

 

Co-organized by CPR and Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations Sciences Po (IDDRI). The meeting enabled a free and frank sharing of views among the 27 participants on what India’s red-lines for Copenhagen were, and what it could realistically be expected to deliver at CoP-15.

 

While it was agreed that the last 20 years of climate negotiations had yielded significant benefits across a range of different areas, it was also felt that more was needed to be done to reduce the trust deficit between developed and developing countries.

 

Among the points that were emphasised during the discussions were the need for stronger Annex I emissions reduction targets for 2020; the need to use the national communications (NATCOM) process more effectively; the need to avoid trade-restrictions to achieve climate gains, and the need for CDM reform to include programmatic CDM.