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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 000285 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS 
STATE FOR SECC TODD STERN 
DEPT OF ENERGY FOR TCUTLER, CGILLESPIE, MGINZBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV ENRG ECON TSPL TRGY KSCA KGHG IN
SUBJECT: CLIMATE CONFUSION:  10TH DELHI SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 
SUMMIT UNDERSCORES UNCERTAINTY ON THE WAY FORWARD 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, held 
February 5 - 7, 2010, was notable for the overwhelming support for 
Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the recently embattled chairman of the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and also for a 
distinct lack of ideas, bordering on outright confusion, on the 
direction climate negotiations should take to reach agreement at the 
16th Conference of Parties (COP-16) to the UNFCCC in Mexico.  Indian 
Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh proved an 
exception in his call for clarity on the concept of equity as it 
relates to future carbon emissions as opposed to historical 
emissions, but discussion of the interplay between the Copenhagen 
Accord, the Bali Action Plan, and the Kyoto Protocol was noticeably 
lacking.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (U) The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) is an annual 
conference hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), an 
Indian NGO whose Director General is IPCC chairman Dr. R.K. 
Pachauri.  As the first major international conference on climate 
change post Copenhagen, expectations were relatively mild due to 
potential climate fatigue as well as to recent attacks on Dr. 
Pachauri in the press for errors in IPCC reporting concerning the 
melt rate of Himalayan glaciers and questions regarding his personal 
finances and potential conflicts of interest.  Prime Minister 
Manmohan Singh inaugurated DSDS 2010 and set a tone of full support 
and faith in both Dr. Pachauri and the IPCC.  PM Singh called 
Pachauri "far sighted" and stated "India has full confidence in the 
IPCC process and its leadership and will support it in every way it 
can."  Similar sentiments were echoed by speakers throughout the 
conference. 
 
----------------- 
COPENHAGEN ACCORD 
----------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) In his inaugural address, PM Singh stated India fully 
supported the Copenhagen Accord and will take it forward noting 
there was much in the Accord that can bring consensus to the climate 
negotiations.  However, he went on to state the Accord was not a 
substitute but a complement to the UNFCCC negotiations on the Kyoto 
Protocol and Long Term Cooperation.  He called for negotiations to 
begin again as soon as possible, perhaps as early as March, and 
although he made it clear the GOI stands fully behind the Kyoto 
Protocol, he also stated "a modest accord that is fully implemented 
may be better than an ambitious one that falls seriously short of 
its targets." 
 
¶4.  (U) Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh stated the 
Accord was a major step forward but that one of the reasons it was 
not adopted by the Conference of Parties in Copenhagen (COP-15) was 
due to a problem with the negotiating process which some countries 
did not consider sufficiently transparent.  Denmark came under fire 
multiple times due to its management of COP-15 however Danish 
Minister for Climate and Energy Lykke Friis responded to criticism 
by noting Denmark was not suffering any sense of "climate 
depression" but rather felt Denmark was "gaining traction on a 
realistic approach" in the form of the Copenhagen Accord.  Most 
governmental speakers offered varying degrees of support for the 
Accord such as Slovenian President Danilo Turk who stated it was "an 
important positive step that should not be undermined by public 
expectations," while non-governmental speakers attacked the Accord 
with Jeffrey Sachs claiming "Copenhagen was broken by the United 
States and others" and calling the Accord an "empty promise." 
 
---------------------------- 
CONFUSION ON THE WAY FORWARD 
---------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) The theme of DSDS 2010 was "Beyond Copenhagen:  New Pathways 
to Sustainable Development" though there were very few new pathways 
offered during the conference.  The suggestions for moving forward 
included adopting the sectoral approach, negotiating a "cafeteria" 
of separate agreements as opposed to one over-arching agreement, and 
from French Climate Change Ambassador Brice LaLonde, a 
recommendation to utilize the building blocks of the Copenhagen 
Accord as the basis for a legally binding agreement.  Professor 
Kandeh Yumkella from the UN Industrial Development Organization 
strongly urged going to Mexico with ready funding in order to build 
trust with developing countries.  Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari 
 
NEW DELHI 00000285  002 OF 002 
 
 
Maathai suggested soliciting support of religious leaders to help 
spread the message that God's creation is under threat and motivate 
people to take action at an individual level.  As to the negotiating 
process itself, while COP-15 was widely condemned as an example of 
how not to conduct climate negotiations, ideas for COP-16 were weak 
and ranged from the need for early negotiations, to having an agreed 
text ready months in advance, to the conclusion that only heads of 
state would be able to negotiate a final text. 
 
¶6.  (U) Minister Ramesh stated the primary roadblock on the way 
forward was the ability to anchor a legally binding agreement in the 
principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.  He claimed 
that without such an anchor, "Cancun [COP-16] is doomed."  Ramesh 
noted the world fully understood the concept of equity in regard to 
the stock of historical emissions, but not in regard to the flow of 
future emissions.  He stated that without clarity on the concept of 
equity in the flow of future emissions, "you won't have India and 
China coming on board with a legally binding agreement in Cancun." 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) COMMENT:  The strongest impression emerging from DSDS 2010 
was that nobody has a clear idea of how to achieve success at 
COP-16.  While there was strong support for the science of climate 
change, the IPCC, and Dr. Pachauri in particular, there was neither 
consensus nor solid suggestions on how to craft an agreement to fit 
the science.  The GOI used the conference as a venue to test its 
ability to walk a line in support of the Copenhagen Accord as a 
major economy and part of the BASIC group without alienating the 
G-77 by undermining the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan. 
However, PM Singh's statement regarding a modest accord being better 
than an ambitious protocol may be an indication of what India would 
like to see at COP-16.  END COMMENT. 
 
ROEMER