India to ratify Paris Agreement on climate change

“In this regard, the Kingdom of Morocco will endeavor under the leadership of HM the King, to make the Marrakech Conference an important step to bring the Paris Agreement into force, by finding solutions to ensure sustainable economic development and adopting concrete measures to implement the worldwide obligations of this historic Agreement, through the mobilization of necessary financial structuring resources and the strengthening of capacity building as well as the facilitation of access to finance”, said Mezouar who was speaking before the 71st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will ratify the agreement October 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.

The pact that is expected to kick in by year-end requires countries to come up with plans to limit greenhouse gas emission to keep global temperature rise to below 2°Celsius.

New Delhi had previously expressed reservations on the deal, arguing that it would have a negative impact on India’s development.

The agreement will be open for signature until April 21, 2017. India will do it on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, ” Modi said while addressing the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) National Council meet here, noting that Gandhi had lived his life with a minimum ‘carbon footprint. The list has both the U.S. and China which are together responsible for about 40 per cent of the world’s emissions, besides other major economies like Brazil. India represents about four percent of global emissions, according to the authorities’ assessments.

Further, with a formal agreement on the climate accord, the country would also have to set a new target to increase its share of non-fossil-based power capacity from 30 per cent today to about 40 per cent by 2030 and create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through additional tree cover.

India has not agreed to cap or cut its carbon emissions outright like some countries.

“Modi noted that the world and coastal areas in particular are concerned for ways to ensure the global temperature doesn’t rise by another two per cent”.

Is the Paris Climate Agreement anything more than words?