Climate change: India seeks UN reforms, fair climate treaty

Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought support of 14 Pacific Island nations for India’s permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) while promising a seat for Pacific region in the expanded UNSC and help for ensuring “balanced” and “fair” climate treaty in Paris this winter.

Updated on: Aug 21, 2015, 23:26:36 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Jaipur

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought support of 14 Pacific Island nations for India’s permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) while promising a seat for Pacific region in the expanded UNSC and help for ensuring “balanced” and “fair” climate treaty in Paris this winter.

PM Modi joins hands with heads of governments at the second summit of Forum for India-Pacific Island Countries in Jaipur on Friday. (PTI Photo)

Speaking at the second India-Pacific Island Cooperation, Modi emphasised on need to reform the UN so that it can keep pace with the “changing world” and sought their support for the text of the President of the General Assembly as a basis for reforming the Security Council.

“Reform in United Nations is in global interest for equitable world. We should ensure conclusion of negotiations on UN reforms at the 17th session of UNGA,” Modi said while concluding the summit.

He said India supported interests of small island nations on capacity building in the outcome document on the post-2015 development agenda called Sustainable Development Goals and a dedicated seat for them in an expanded and reformed United Nations Security Council. “India will support the realisation of your vision of Pacific Regionalism,” he said.

Modi also touched upon the sensitive issue of climate change saying it was an “existential” threat to Pacific Islands and millions of Indians living on its 7,500 km long shoreline, adding they have worked together for a separate goal on climate change in SDGs.

“We both (India and Pacific nation) seek a concrete and effective outcome on climate change at COP 21 in Paris later this year,” Modi said, minutes before leaders from Pacific nations sought India’s help for an equitable agreement in Paris to protect island nations from vanishing.

“Countries have exactly 14 weeks to decide on new climate treaty. I will ask India to stand with the island nations against selfish nations who are not willing to take enough action to protect us from adverse impacts of global warming” Fiji Prime Minister V Bainimarama said.

His views were echoed by other leaders of Pacific nations who wanted that the world should respect their vulnerability to “extreme” weather events.

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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