Pressure on as US, China, ratify Paris climate pact

NEW DELHI: The US and China, the world’s two biggest carbon emitters, on Saturday announced ratification of the Paris climate accord aimed at zero emissions by the

Published on: Sep 4, 2016, 06:57:27 IST

By Chetan Chauhan

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NEW DELHI: The US and China, the world’s two biggest carbon emitters, on Saturday announced ratification of the Paris climate accord aimed at zero emissions by the turn of the century. India, however, is unlikely to join the bandwagon soon.

The country’s absence though will not make any difference to the deal that comes into force this winter. As per the United Nations climate convention, at least 55 countries contributing minimum 55% of the emissions should ratify the deal to make it effective.

“Today is a landmark day in fighting climate change,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said after US President Barack Obama and Chinese premier Xi Jinping presented papers to him in Hangzhou, China, ratifying the deal. But officials in New Delhi said they were not in a “hurry” to ratify the deal and would wait for the response of the top leaders towards its bid to be a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at the G-20 summit.

PM Narendra Modi is expected to raise the issue of NSG membership in Hangzhou as India had previously said becoming an NSG member was key to achieving its green targets under the Paris deal.

India has committed that it will reduce the emission intensity of its economy by 33-35% by 2030 and for that, it will have to ramp up its nuclear energy generation to 63 gegawatt by 2032. “We need committed supply of nuclear fuel to run our power stations for which NSG membership is important as it creates a climate of predictability,” a senior government functionary said.

Sources said the Paris treaty was discussed when US Secretary for State John Kerry was in Delhi this week, but consensus eluded the talks.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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