India against review of emission cut plans before Paris summit

Amid pressure from other countries, India made it clear on Wednesday that it would not accept international review of its emission reduction plans before the Paris climate summit next year.

India’s assertion came at the UN Climate Change Conference at Lima in Peru, where world leaders would put in place their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), or the building blocks of a global emission cut treaty to be adopted at the Paris summit.

INDCs, however, are more proposals than commitments and some industrialised countries wanted ex-ante or upfront information on countries plans, which could include sectors covered, emission factors and adopted methodology.

Reacting to this, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told the conference: “INDCs are to be nationally determined. We do not see any role for any ex-ante review in this process. INDCs should include all elements including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity building.”

With several countries expressing the desire to include only mitigation measures in INDCs, Javadekar said: “Adaptation is a central and critical priority for developing countries to address climate change. The new post-2020 agreement should ensure a balance between mitigation and adaptation.”

After all the INDCs are to be out by June 2015, the UN is expected to estimate if the combined action of countries would be enough to keep the rising global temperature level within the 2 degrees guardrail, as suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“If the (INDC) numbers don’t add up, all countries are expected to enhance their bid and that’s when things will heat up,” said Sunita Narain, director of Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based NGO.


The environmentalist opposed India’s stand on the INDC at Lima. “It’s a regressive step. India should demand that countries justify their INDCs based on equity and ‘common but differentiated responsibility and respective capability’ (CBDRRC),” she said.

Currently, INDCs do not guarantee fairness, ambition or adequacy. They remove the distinction between developed and developing countries as every country will now decide on and give their own domestic targets. Presently, there is no provision to hold countries like the US accountable, which is proposing a reduction of just 12-14 per cent from 1990 level of emissions by 2025.

“Instead of opposing, India should give an alternative proposal on how it wants countries to take action based on equity and CBDRRC. Otherwise, it would seem India is using the issue of equity to block a consensus,” said Narain.