A day before India ratifies the Paris climate agreement, Environment Minister Anil Dave confirmed at a press briefing that there was no link between India ratifying the deal and its membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and emphasised that India would push for finance and technology from developed countries at the forthcoming talks in Morocco.
“There is no connection between ratification and membership [of the Nuclear Supplier Group]. Before ratifying the deal we wanted to have wide consultation and that when the deal was executed, things should be clear from India’s view,” he said. “That was cleared and now we have signed it.”
PM Narendra Modi announced in Kozhikode on September 25 that India would ratify the Paris climate deal. The ratification document will be submitted Sunday evening (IST) at the offices of the UN Secretary-General by Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, o his representative said environment ministry officials.
It is still unclear what led India to dramatically alter its position from mere weeks ago. NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman, Arvind Panagariya had, at the G20 summit in China last month, said that India “wasn’t ready” in terms of the domestic actions that were required to ratify or at least commit to ratify [the Paris deal] within 2016.”
After India’s bid to enter the NSG was rebuffed by China at Seoul in June, the Ministry of External Affairs had said, “An early positive decision by the NSG would have allowed us to move forward on the Paris Agreement.”
Technology transferMr. Dave said at the forthcoming climate talks in Morocco in November, India would stress most on trying to operationalise the $100 billion corpus — called the Green Climate Fund — that has been committed by developed countries to aid policy, projects and technology transfer to buffer against the impact of climate change. Only a fraction of it has been pledged so far.
India will also set up a ‘pavilion’ at the climate talks in Morocco to showcase Gandhiji’s ‘low carbon lifestyle.’ India would push, Mr. Dave said in a statement, for developed countries to make good on their prior commitments on finance and technology. “So far we have got only $ 2 million of the $10 million committed this year,” he said. “Hardly any money has come and that’s going to be the focus of our negotiations.”
The funds will help nations work on fulfilling their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) which aim to reduce carbon emissions through a host of solutions. Mr. Dave said that India has already completed 12 per cent of all pre-2020 Intended National Determined Contributions (INDC), or the road map by which it will make good on its commitments to reduce carbon emissions.
As part of its INDC plans, India had promised to bring down its emissions intensity, or emissions per unit of the GDP, by at least 33 per cent by the year 2030 as compared to 2005 levels.
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