Ahead of the major UN climate summit in Paris in December this year, India is under growing pressure to announce its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), containing emissions reductions targets, at the earliest date.
On Tuesday, top French climate ambassadors Laurence Tubiana and Nicholas Hulot met with ministers, including Union Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar, to discuss India’s progress on determining its contributions ahead of the Paris summit. Sources say, both US and French negotiators are keen that India makes some sort of announcement when PM travels to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September this year. The negotiators said they are hopeful that most of the climate agreement text would be ready by October
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“We are looking forward to India for leadership on the climate action front,” said Ms. Tubiana, special representative of Laurent Fabius, the French minister of foreign affairs and international development, for the Paris Climate 2015 conference (COP21). While France cannot impose the domestic commitment of various countries - each country will have to commit to its own set of goals for reducing global warming, so as to maintain the global temperature rise to within 2 degrees celcius, Ms. Tubiana said India can really show the way for other participating countries in this regard. She cited the Indian Prime Minister’s encouragement for solar power generation as an instance of the country’s ability to lead the way in climate action.
In March this year, the European Union, of which France is a member, announced its INDCs to be at least 40 per cent domestic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2030. India is yet to make its contributions clear.
Sources say the government told the visiting French negotiators that India’s current priority is to give access to energy to about 300 million people, which cannot be achieved without the use of coal. Switching to a low-carbon economic model for developing countries like India would require access to cheap capital by way of climate financing, which India has emphasised earlier as well.
“The G20 summit happening in Turkey in November, a little ahead of the Paris summit, might be a good forum to discuss some of the climate-financing related issues,” Ms. Tubiana said. She also referred to Narendra Modi's reference to the Green Bank and the possibility of the BRICS bank funding green projects. She added that the role of France was to convince partners to invest in green technologies. “We may need technological leapfrogs, especially in the area of intermittent energy storage, so that countries are ready to switch to a low-carbon economy,” she said.
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