JOIN USIndia to stand by Paris deal
India would stand by its Paris climate treaty commitments, notwithstanding the pull out by the Donald Trump administration, which blamed India and China as the two beneficiaries of an “unfair” climate deal.
Officials pointed out that India’s eight-point climate action plan to reduce carbon emission intensity by one-third and generate 40% of total electricity from non-fossil fuel sources is financially self-sufficient at the moment.
However, successful implementation of these plans in their entirety would rely on large-scale external funding and technology flow from the rich nations.
“Our government is committed irrespective of the stand of anyone, anywhere in the world. It has been the stand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said here on Friday.
In October 2016, in the run-up to the Paris summit, India released its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), a set of voluntary targets to clean up the environment. They include lowering carbon emission growth rate by 33-35% by resorting to a clean and efficient energy system, improving energy efficiency, developing climate resilient urban centres, promoting waste to energy conversion, establishing smart and green transport network, reducing the pollution load and expanding canopy cover.
“We are committed to ensuring that we will do our best to address the issue related to climate change and global warming,” Vardhan told reporters.
Trump on Friday declared that the US would withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord as the “draconian” deal unfairly punished America but benefited India and China. There are speculations about the first meeting between Modi and Trump by June end in Washington.
Sources said that the pressure on India and China to contribute to the international climate fund and step up the activities to fill the void left by the US was “unfair and against all principles of equity and fairness” as climate change, due to global warming, was caused by the industrialised nations in the last 300 years.
The objective of the Paris Agreement is to prevent an increase in the global average temperature and keep it well below 2 degrees Celsius.
DH News Service