New Delhi : Welcoming the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that climate justice has won and the deliberations have showed the collective wisdom of the world leaders to mitigate climate change. Modi, who was kept in the loop for the final agreement by the conference host French president Francois Hollande before the finalisation of the 31-page document, appreciated this gesture. ‘‘There are no winners or losers in the outcome,” he quipped. Commenting on the legally-binding pact which seeks to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and making developed nations commit USD 100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing countries, Modi said:” “Deliberations at COP21 and Paris Agreement demonstrate the collective wisdom of world leaders to mitigate climate change. Climate change remains a challenge but Paris Agreement demonstrates how every nation rose to the challenge, working towards a solution.”
India is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but has a historically low rate of emissions and has argued that the developing world should not be made to bear the cost of climate change. So, the commitment of the developed nations to foot the bill marks the victory of India’s stance that they should pay the mitigation cost and this would constitute climate justice. “For the first time, every country in the world has pledged to curb emissions, strengthen resilience and join in common cause to take common climate action. This is a resounding success for multilateralism,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. US President Barack Obama called the agreement a “turning point for the world” and said it sent a powerful signal that the world was firmly committed to a low-carbon future.
Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar said the pact could have been more ambitious as the commitment from rich nations was “much below” what was expected of them, but the basic concept of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ was largely addressed. “To achieve big things, as there are languages and many issues when 196 countries are putting their efforts together, one needs to be accommodative without changing the thrust of the agreement. We’ve done everything to maintain that thrust,” Javadekar said. “Today is a historic day. What we have adopted today is not only an agreement but a new chapter of hope in the lives of seven billion people,” the minister said at the closing plenary in Paris. “Today we reassure our future generation that we all will mitigate the challenge posed by climate change and give them a better future.” At the Conference of Parties, India provided leadership to the interests of the developing countries and lesser developed countries, Minister of Power Piyush Goyal said after the Paris accord was adopted.
However, environment protection organisation Centre for Science and Environment called the deal “weak and unambitious” as it erases the historical responsibility of the developed countries. “The draft Paris agreement continues to be weak and unambitious, as it does not include any meaningful targets for developed countries to reduce their emissions,” said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, in a statement. Narain added that the agreement did not operationalise equity and that the term carbon budget did not even find mention in the text, which would end up furthering “climate apartheid”. CSE analyses that India will be under constant pressure to take more burden for mitigating climate change by 2020 and beyond, especially when the next review of the contributions of different countries takes place. Input PTI
