15 DECEMBER 2014: COP calls 4 INDC @ Lima

Ø  Over a day behind schedule, the world set the stage for a new climate treaty by agreeing to the Lima Call for Climate Action which was slammed by NGOs and people’s movements. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in a statement said the governments agreed on the ground rules on contributions to the Paris 2015 Agreement and boost adaptation. After two weeks of negotiations which were “exceedingly slow” and several revisions of the draft text, countries finally agreed to ground rules on their national contributions by March 2015 if they are ready or by October 2015, and also a framework for the new treaty in Paris. These Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) will form the foundation for climate action post 2020 when the new agreement is set to come into effect. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the Minister of Environment, Peru, and the president of the Conference of Parties, said, “Lima has given a new urgency towards fast-tracking adaptation and building resilience across the developing world — not least by strengthening the link to finance and the development of national adaptation plans.” Mr. Vidal, who worked hard to push for a deal in the last two days, added that governments had left Lima with a far clearer vision of what the draft Paris agreement would look like. Pledges were made by both developed and developing countries prior to and during the climate talks that took the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) past $10 billion. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, said: “Governments arrived in Lima on a wave of positive news and optimism resulting from the climate action announcements of the European Union, China and the United States to the scaling up of pledges for the Green Climate Fund.”

Ø  Mauritius President named veteran politician Sir Anerood Jugnauth as Prime Minister, after the 84-year-old won a landslide taking nearly three-quarters of the seats in Parliament. Mr. Jugnauth, a former President and Prime Minister, was handed his letter of appointment at a meeting at State House. Mr. Jugnauth’s centre-right Alliance Lepep swept 47 out of 62 seats in the Indian Ocean nation’s Parliament, after voters on Wednesday rejected the ruling party’s bid to boost presidential powers.

Ø  Tax evasion needs to be made a serious “criminal offence” to force foreign countries to reveal names and account details of Indians stashing illicit wealth abroad, the Special Investigation Team on black money has said. At present, tax evasion is a civil offence in India and is dealt under the Income Tax Act, 1961, while forex violations are dealt under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The Supreme Court-constituted SIT, which has the former Supreme Court judges M.B. Shah and Arijit Pasayat as Chairman and Vice-Chairman, recently submitted its latest report on the black money menace, wherein it has disclosed tracing of Rs. 4,479 crore held by Indians in a Swiss bank and unaccounted-for wealth worth Rs. 14,958 crore within India.