Isra-Mart srl:Rich and poor nations outline plan for carbon reporting deal

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Hopes are rising that the Cancun climate change summit could deliver some form of agreement on how to measure, report and verify countries' greenhouse gas emissions, after the EU and India both set out new proposals for an international reporting mechanism.

In what could prove a significant breakthrough India is reportedly proposing that all large economies, including developing nations such as India and China, would report on their greenhouse gas emissions, while industrialised nations would also report on the amount of climate aid they are providing.

The EU similarly set out proposals that would see developing nations face international verification of their reported emission, although the inspection regime would not have the power to issue any form of penalties.

India's plan in particular represents a major breakthrough for the negotiations after measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) emerged as one of the main areas of contention at last year's Copenhagen Summit.

The US has consistently demanded that any international climate change deal must include an independent MRV mechanism to check that developing countries are making good on commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But at last year's summit China and a number of other developing nations rejected proposals for any form of MRV, arguing inspections would represent an infringement of national sovereignty.

However, reports this week suggested China may be willing to soften its position, with one of the country's lead negotiators telling the China Dialogue web site that the country would be more transparent about the actions it is taking to tackle climate change.

In a sign of this pledged increase in transparency, China's top climate change official told state media that the country has met its 2010 target for cutting emissions of key pollutants and would meet its energy efficiency goal for the year.

According to reports in the People's Daily, Xie Zhenhua said emissions of major pollutants had fallen 10 per cent, while the country was on track to improve its energy intensity – the use of energy per unit of GDP – by 20 per cent compared to 2005 levels.

In addition, the US delegation has confirmed that it has been making good progress in recent bilateral talks with China on a number of issues where the two superpowers disagree, including MRV.

Observers expressed optimism that any agreement on MRV would help to bolster confidence in the negotiations and could drive progress on a number of other fronts, including efforts to agree binding emissions targets and increase climate aid for developing countries.

However, senior US diplomats have also warned there will be no significant progress on individual areas of the negotiations, including MRV, if progress is not made on contentious issues such as emissions targets and the structure of any new treaty.

There were little signs of progress on either front yesterday, with the alliance of 43 island states insisting that with several low lying states facing the "end of history" as a result of rising sea levels their demands for more ambitious emission reduction targets that limit average global temperature rises to just 1.5C represent a "red line" in the negotiations.

Meanwhile, the debate surrounding the legal status of last year's Copenhagen Accord and how best to structure an agreement to succeed the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol continued to rage.

The EU has signalled that it is willing to sign up to a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, provided a number of reforms are made to the agreement and it is accompanied by a parallel second treaty that covers those countries that currently have no legal obligations under Kyoto.

However, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshito Sengoku told reporters yesterday it would "sternly oppose debate for extending the Kyoto Protocol into a second phase which is unfair and ineffective".

The comments are likely to enrage many developing countries who are fiercely protective of the Kyoto Protocol, regarding it as the only legal mechanism for curbing emissions from industrialised nations.

In contrast, Japan and the US as well as a number of other industrialised nations want to see the agreement killed off and replaced with an entirely new deal that imposes some degree of legal requirements on all economies.