India to play hardball at UN climate summit

India will play hardball at the United Nations climate summit in New York next week asking rich nations to deliver on their promise to capitalise Green Climate Fund to buy copy rights of clean technologies and have a new climate treaty on the cardinal principles enshrined in Kyoto Protocol and Rio plus 20 outcome document.

Updated on: Sep 19, 2014, 22:47:48 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India will play hardball at the United Nations climate summit in New York next week asking rich nations to deliver on their promise to capitalise Green Climate Fund to buy copy rights of clean technologies and have a new climate treaty on the cardinal principles enshrined in Kyoto Protocol and Rio plus 20 outcome document.

Kyoto Protocol is based on the principle that only the rich nations have commitment to reduce global warming causing carbon emission while others can take voluntary action whereas Rio plus 20 speaks of right of the development countries to grow for poverty eradication.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar will represent India at the global summit in which 120 heads of the states including US President Barack Obama and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin will participate. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided not to participate apparently to express India’s displeasure at the UN agreeing to rich nations to host a conference to push for a climate deal.

“We are against starting a parallel negotiating platform. Our stand is clear that all negotiations regarding climate change should be held under UN framework on climate change (called UNFCCC),” Javadekar said, in a oblique reference to the summit refusing to name it.

India and China will together express their displeasure of UN hosting a parallel climate talks and the two countries have decided to have a joint strategy for the meeting termed as an effort of the rich countries to get endorsement of heads of nations on broad framework of new climate deal.

Detailing India’s agenda for the conference, the minister said the government wants that the new climate treaty to be signed in Paris in 2015 and applicable from 2020 should ensure that it should not act as an impediment for the development countries right to grow economically.

The Indian delegation for the summit will also outline the achievements of India on adopting cleaner technologies and the renewable energy revolution happening in India. India has already set a target of saving 10,000 MW of power under its energy efficiency mission. The minister said he will also speak about the government’s mission to clean River Ganga and a sustainable growth model for industries.

This, according to Javadekar would mean that India’s overall carbon emissions would grow but our efficiency in using carbon emitting energy will also grow. The minister will also hold bilateral with 10 countries in the sidelines of the summit and participate at the meeting of Major Economies Forum, a group of 24 biggest carbon emitters.

In addition to attending the summit, Javadekar will also be over-looking the preparations for Modi’s rally at Madison Square in New York which would be attended by about 20,000 people.

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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