Doha climate talks

One should welcome the fact that the Doha climate talks have ended on a somewhat positive note although not quite to the full satisfaction of the vulnerable countries. Countries at the receiving end of climate change will now get remunerated for the “loss and damage” they incur. That is the pledge that the rich nations have made to the vulnerable ones, something that has never in the past been included in an international legal document. But does that pledge go far enough to address the core problems imposed by climate change?
When it comes to climate change, compensation for the damage is just not enough. The pledge to the poorer nations must be extended to ensuring that the loss and damage are increasingly reduced to zero. And that can be possible only when the biggest emitters get on board the carbon-cut regime. Although there has not been any substantive new commitment to cut emissions, we welcome the decision of the EU, Australia and Norway and a few other developed countries that have undertaken to meet the target of cutting down on carbon emissions as per the Kyoto Protocol that run up to 2020.
However, there are a few questions that remain to be addressed. We wonder whether the pledge will have any weightage if it is not made legally binding. What the vulnerable countries demand is not aid but something legally obtainable from countries that continue to perpetrate harm on the vulnerable countries because of their unmitigated consumerist propensities. And aid remains the prerogative of the giver and not an obligation.
Equally importantly, we need pledges for more emission cuts and hopefully the new protocol, that will be signed in 2015 and become effective in 2020, will determine responsibility for emission and liability for compensation on a pro rata basis.