JOIN USUS President Barack Obama on Sunday offered his support towards India’s clean energy initiative but remained silent on what concrete steps India and the US need to take for having a successful international emission cut treaty at Paris later this year.
Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the importance of working together and with other countries to conclude an ambitious climate agreement in Paris in 2015. They also reaffirmed their stand on phasing down common freeze gas hydroflurocarbon that causes green houses effect. In what may be construed as a possible hint of the concession that India – the world’s fourth largest polluter – may get in Paris, the Obama-Modi joint statement says the two nations recognise the imperatives of sustainable development, growth and the eradication of poverty in the context of climate change.
New Delhi has consistently maintained that poverty eradication overrides all its other priorities and India’s per capita emission would never surpass that of a developed country. India also took some steps voluntarily. It would expand its renewable energy programme in a big way for reduction in the carbon footprint. Asked if India is under any pressure because of the US-China climate deal, Modi said, “The US-China agreement does not impose any pressure on us. India is an independent country and there is no pressure on us from any country or any person.”
The prime minister, however, underlined the importance of cleaning up the environment for the future generation: “When we think about the future generations and what kind of a world we are going to give them, then there is pressure.”
DH News Service