Panel Discussion on DECODING THE DURBAN PLATFORM AND LOOKING BEYOND

Centre for Policy Research 

organising a panel discussion on

 Decoding the Durban Platform And Looking Beyond

 The Durban climate conference arrived, 36 hours after the scheduled end of the conference, at a set of landmark decisions. These include decisions to implement the Cancun Agreements, operationalize the Green Climate Fund, extend the Kyoto Protocol for a second commitment period, and launch a new process to negotiate a future climate regime.  Of these, the decision to launch the Durban Platform on Enhanced Action is of particular significance. Parties agreed to negotiate ‘a Protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all’ for the post-2020 period. India played a key role in the making of this decision. Although the media has interpreted this decision to mean that all ‘major emitters,’ developed and developing alike, will be legally bound to GHG emissions cuts from 2020, the tortured language used in this decision masks a vast terrain of contestations.  This panel will discuss the making of the Durban Platform, the contestations at the heart of this decision (what it includes, doesn’t and why) and its implications for the development of the post-2020 climate regime.

Chair: Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Panelists:

Lavanya Rajamani, Professor, Centre For Policy Research

D. Raghunandan, President, All India People’s Science Network

Navroz K. Dubash, Senior Fellow, Centre For Policy Research

This discussion is a part of CPR's Climate Initiative.