Fourth BASIC Meeting Focuses on Equity

26 July 2010: The fourth Ministerial Coordination Meeting between Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) on the ongoing negotiations under the UNFCCC was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 25-26 July 2010. The meeting was preceded by a meeting of experts on climate change (23-24 July) and a meeting of leading negotiators (24 July).

In line with the “BASIC-plus” approach, additional participants were invited, with the Special Envoy of Venezuela for Climate Change in attendance as an observer. Equity in the international effort to address climate change was one of the main items on the agenda of the meeting. According to the resulting Joint Statement, BASIC ministers agree that fast-start finance will be the key for an effective result in the climate change negotiations at the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 16) in Cancún, Mexico, in late 2010. They express concern about the lack of operational guidelines for the provision of such resources and underscore the need for such financing to effectively be new and additional, as well as provided as grants on a concessional basis, respecting the definitions of the UNFCCC and the understandings achieved in Copenhagen. BASIC ministers also stress the need for detailed and comprehensive information on fast-start financing flows provided by developed countries, to be made available officially, stressing the need for fast-start financing to cover, in a balanced way, all the pillars of the Bali Action Plan, including adaptation and technology development and transfer.

In addition, BASIC ministers underscore the distinction between measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) of emission reduction commitments by developed countries, which is related to compliance and comparability, and MRV of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) by developing countries, which is related to transparency. They further underline that work on the MRV of international support must advance urgently, including through the development of common procedures for the reporting of finance. They state that only supported NAMAs should be subject to international MRV, in conjunction with the MRV of international support, while non-supported NAMAs will apply domestic MRV, noting that international consultations and analysis of information regarding non-supported actions would be useful to enhance transparency, through a multilateral technical exchange under the UNFCCC.

BASIC ministers also underscore that a global goal for emission reductions should be preceded by the definition of a paradigm for equitable burden sharing, emphasizing equitable access to carbon space as a central element in the building of a balanced and comprehensive outcome for the climate change negotiations. The Fifth Meeting of Ministers of the BASIC Group will be held in China from 10-11 October 2010, together with a meeting of experts to take forward discussions on equitable access to carbon space and address issues related to trade policy and climate change. [Brazil Press Release] [Joint Statement]