Mexico Is Hopeful Of ‘Breakthrough’

Mexico is working overtime to save the upcoming UN Climate Change Summit in Cancun from collapse. Patricia Espinosa, minister of foreign affairs of Mexico and the chairperson of the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in her recent visit to India has been working hard to restore confidence in the negotiating process especially since the Bonn round of talks ended in a stand-off between the industrialised and the developing countries.

“In Cancun we can agree upon the institutional architecture and a number of concrete measures that are necessary to achieve the implementation of both the convention and the Kyoto Protocol without sacrificing our level of ambition or the agreed core principles,” Ms Espinosa pointed out in an interview.

Already climate negotiatiors from Mexico have fanned out to different nations, especially those who felt excluded during the Copenhagen summit. Mexico’s key negotiator still Insists a “spectacular breakthrough” is possible, a point of view which is not endorsed by the UN Secreatry General Ban Ki-moon who has already acknowledged that the Cancun meet will not see any definite agreement or by IPCC chairman R.K. Pachauri.

Mr Pachauri reiterated that key decisions on climate change in Cancun, “should be within the Kyoto Protocol as it was arrived at after a great deal of mud and sweat. We can’t throw it aside,” he said.

Union minister of environment Jairam Ramesh who had an extensive meeting with Ms Espinosa is frank when he states, “The Americans insist they will not make commitments unless the Chinese do. So we are frankly headed nowhere.”