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India wants rich nations to commit on climate

Modi in Paris to forge agreement on emission cuts
Last Updated 30 November 2015, 02:56 IST

India will work hard for inclusion of six vital points in the outcome document of the UN Climate Summit as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Paris on Sunday for the mega conference.

World leaders are set to hammer out a legally-binding agreement on emission cuts at the summit which will begin on Monday.

“Leaving for Paris, where I will join CoP-21 (21st session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). In the summit, we will deliberate on crucial issues relating to environment and climate change,” tweeted Modi before his departure. He will also launch the international solar alliance with the aim of creating a larger market for solar energy.

Modi will join a league of world leaders, including United States President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who are likely to extend political support behind the global emission reduction pact, six years after a similar summit in Copenhagen failed to do the job.

‘India not a deal breaker’
Last week, Modi said India would not be a deal breaker in Paris, though US thinks New Delhi would be a “challenge” to thrash out a post 2020 treaty.

More than 190 countries will meet in the summit to create a durable framework for addressing climate change and to implement a process to reduce greenhouse gas emission in the long run.

A legally binding treaty with commitments from individual countries may emerge from Paris. Of the six points, the two vital ones for India are differentiated transparency framework and higher level of commitment from the rich nations.

 “There are attempts to insert a common transparency framework from 2020, whereas our efforts would be to have a differentiated system in the beginning,” said a negotiator.

India and the G-77 nations would also sternly remind the rich nations the commitment of $100 billion they made in Copenhagen, but failed to match. Only $10 billion has been pledged so far and just eight climate projects worth $168 million were sanctioned.

The finance from the rich nations would have to be new and additional instead of repackaging the official development assistance.

“Lack of commitment on the part of developed nations on finance and technology will be pursued. An attempt is being made to downplay the developed countries’ commitments and enhance the commitment of developing nations. It will be contested,” said the negotiator.

Another official said, “Attempts to enlarge the contributor base and shrink the recipient base for climate finance will also be contested.”

Also, rich nations’ strategy of focusing only on “mitigation” measures would be challenged as India wants to give equal importance to adaptation measures to cope up with the dangerous consequences of climate change.

In addition, principles like “equity”, “common but differentiated responsibility” and “historical responsibility” would have to be factored in the outcome document.

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(Published 29 November 2015, 19:43 IST)

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