How four Tamilians rescued Warsaw climate talks that led to Paris pact

A report from AIR Worldwide, a global risk modeling firm, estimates that now each year extreme weather is costing $320 billion around the world, with only about one-third of it insured. (Image: AP)

As the 26th Climate Change conference (COP 26) wound down in Glasgow, Scotland, amidst punditry whether it was a success or failure, the banter at the United Nations headquarters in New York was that there could be no progress at any such Conference of Parties (COP) unless Tamil was used to bridge differences. Credit for this wisecrack goes to Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Burhan Gafoor in conversation with his Indian counterpart, TS Tirumurti, in the curious presence of several diplomats at the UN.

Gafoor is a Singaporean of Tamil origin. Tirumurti is from Chennai, and is so much of a Chennaivasi that he has written a highly-acclaimed book of fiction by that name. Gafoor and Tirumurti share a special bond, which many diplomats at the UN have tapped into throughout the vexatious and contentious COP26 for guidance: these two Tamilians were the senior-most officials from Singapore and India respectively at COP19 in Warsaw in 2013.

The Warsaw Climate Change Conference was the most dramatic of all such meetings with the exception, perhaps of COP1in Berlin, where it all started in 1995. Malayalam was the mother-tongue of the main Indian official at COP1, but more on that later.

The COP in Warsaw appeared doomed from the start, and almost collapsed midway when its President, a Pole, was dismissed. It nearly broke up in acrimony towards the end when China and the Group of 77 (G-77), including India, walked out. The conference was rescued from total failure by Gafoor and Tirumurti with no small help from a third Tamilian, Vivian Balakrishnan, now the Foreign Minister of Singapore. During COP19, Balakrishnan was in Warsaw, and as Singapore’s Minister for Environment, led the island state’s delegation. A fourth Tamilian among the dramatis personae was India’s Environment Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, but she played no proactive role except to give her formal nod to what Gafoor and Tirumurti, burning midnight oil, worked out to salvage the conference.

At the time of the Warsaw meeting, Singapore was among the worst emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the world, although it has since then put in place major corrective measures such as carbon tax, bigger solar capacity, and more energy-efficient buildings. India, on the other hand, was the lowest emitter attending COP19. The United States was everyone else’s whipping boy, and rightly so.

The conference reached a dead-end when the US and several western countries dug in their heels, refusing to agree to any “Intended Nationally Determined Commitments” on actions to fight global warming. The US has large sections of public opinion which do not believe in the science behind Climate Change, and are convinced that climate actions will downsize their prosperity. The choice of words are important at UN fora as the leftover controversy from Glasgow on “phasing out” or “phasing down” coal — and India’s role in it — testifies.

It is the convention at climate conferences to ‘huddle’ when there is a stalemate over procedures or the text of any document. The intention behind a huddle is the same at ‘consultations’ in the UN Security Council when talks reach a dead-end: while UNSC consultations are in private, huddles at COPs bring participants to the centre of the venue. There they congregate like members of India’s Parliament gather in the well of both Houses when disruptions stall proceedings.

During one huddle in Warsaw over commitments which rich nations were unwilling to make, Tirumurti began discussing the problem with Gafoor in Tamil so that other huddlers were not privy to what they were saying. At one point, the Singaporean came up with the phrase “contributions” in place of “commitments.” Todd Stern, the US climate czar caught on to the word “commitments” although the conversation was in Tamil. He got wind of what was going on and immediately told Turumurti and Gafoor that Washington had no objection to such a formulation. It was suitably embellished and put in writing by Balakrishnan, and Tirumurti got Natarajan’s approval for the change. Thus was COP19 saved, and there was an agreed document, which paved the way two years later for the historic Paris Climate Agreement. In the lexicon on Climate Change worldwide, the new coinage is now attributed to Singapore.

Coal was a stumbling block in Warsaw, just as it delayed a consensus in Glasgow eight years later. The President of COP19, Marcin Krolec, was dismissed as Environment Minister by Polish President Donald Tusk for not defending coal during the negotiations. At that time, 88 percent of Poland’s electricity came from coal.

In 1995, when the first COP convened in Berlin, Climate Change was not in fashion. It motivated no 15-year-old Swedes. Angela Merkel was given the job of reunified Germany’s Environment Minister by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and became President of COP1. Merkel came from communist East Germany, and it was critical for her that she proved herself at the Berlin climate conference.

The chasm that divided US-led rich countries and the ‘Third World’ was unbridgeable. The developing countries were led by TP Sreenivasan in his capacity as elected Chairman of the G-77, which was as uncompromising as the ‘First World’. Merkel could never have become Germany’s Chancellor if COP1, her first big political job, broke up in disagreement. Huddles at COP had not evolved yet, so Merkel tapped Sreenivasan for private consultations. He was told to bring four others from G-77 for nightly private talks with Merkel after the conference was adjourned every day.

A similar five-member ginger group was chosen from the developed countries. They met Merkel night after night for 10 days and hammered out compromises, which have endured for 26 years right up to COP26. Merkel has promised Sreenivasan that he will figure in her post-retirement autobiography for his role in COP1.

KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years. 

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.