NEW DELHI: A group of developing countries, including India, China, Malaysia and Egypt , have decided to corner rich nations on their inadequate pre-2020 climate actions in the context of the recent IPCC report on implications of global warming when they meet for the UN climate conference in Poland next month.

The group, like minded developing countries (LMDC), jointly arrived at this point here during their two-day meet which concluded on Friday.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka did not attend the meeting which was called to discuss the group’s joint agenda ahead of the Katowice UN conference (COP24) in Poland. Though Pakistan as part of this 24-nation group has never been a major force in climate negotiations, India invited all the countries as it wanted to take everyone along as a group at the multilateral forum.

The issues of rich nations’ pre-2020 climate actions to cut emissions and their unfulfilled financial commitments will be key negotiating points during COP24 (December 3-14) which is to be attended by over 195 countries. All the nations together in Poland are expected to frame rules, modalities and procedures for implementation of the Paris Agreement which is meant for their post-2020 climate actions.

"The LMDC will ask the developed countries as to how would they sync their pre-2020 actions in the context of the latest IPCC report. Assessment and enhancement of pre-2020 actions and financial commitments will be important negotiating points at COP24," said India’s key climate negotiator, Ravi Shankar Prasad .

These issues will also figure in the meeting of BASIC ( Brazil , South Africa, India and China) nations which is to be hosted by India in New Delhi on November 19-20.

"The meeting of the LMDC was important in the run up to the COP24 as it helped in preparing a strong unified position on all key issues to defend the proposals of the developing countries," said Prasad, a joint secretary in environment ministry.

India’s environment secretary, CK Mishra, also attended the meet. The participating countries were represented by their senior negotiators and key functionaries.

The LMDC group is learnt to have also discussed how to link the financial commitments of the developed countries (to support developing countries for taking climate actions) with the Global Stocktake (GST) which will happen in 2023.

Under the Paris Agreement, the GST is meant to assess whether the climate actions being taken is consistent with the goal of keeping the global average temperature rise within 2 degree celsius by 2100 from pre-industrial levels.

The inter-governmental panel on cimate change (IPCC), however, in its latest report last month projected that a 2 degree celsius rise would lead to worse global and regional climate impact. It, therefore, pitched for limiting the warming to 1.5 degree celsius, saying it’s not impossible to limit the global warming provided nations together cut their emissions substantially by opting for "rapid and far reaching" transition in various sectors over the next 10 to 20 years.

Algeria, Bolivia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Venezuela are among other nations of the LMDC which is a group within the larger developing countries’ Group of 77 and China.

"It has stood united and strong during the climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has always protected the core principles embedded in the Convention and the Paris Agreement, including equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC) as well as climate justice," said an official note on the LMDC meet.

The discussions during the two-day also focussed on issues related to implementation of the Paris Agreement in post-2020 period including nationally determined contributions (NDCs), transparency of action and support, adaptation, market and non-market mechanism, technology development and transfer and capacity building.

"The meeting was of great significance for the group of LMDC as the year 2018 is an important year for climate change negotiations," said the note.

Referring to COP24, it said the discussions at Katowice would focus on 2018 facilitative dialogue (Talanoa Dialogue), assessment and enhancement of pre-2020 actions and commitments of the developed countries.

