Modi decides against attending UN climate summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be attending United Nations Climate Summit called by UN Secretary General BanKi moon as the government believes it was being held at the behest of rich nations to iron out its differences with the developing world on the new climate treaty to be readied by November this year.

Updated on: Sep 17, 2014, 20:30:18 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be attending United Nations Climate Summit called by UN Secretary General BanKi moon as the government believes it was being held at the behest of rich nations to iron out its differences with the developing world on the new climate treaty to be readied by November this year.

The UN secretary general had invited all head of states including Modi for the summit but the Indian Prime Minister had opted out. And it was also aimed to tell United Nations that it cannot by-pass the climate convention and hold parallel negotiations with the head of states.

On Tuesday, Ban said that he would have like Modi to attend when asked why leaders of India, China and Russia not attending the summit. About 120 head of states including US President Barack Obama are attending the climate summit starting on September 23. Modi will, however, attending UN General Assembly during his US visit starting on September 26.

“We don’t approve the way UN Secretary General’s office has been used to push climate agenda by the rich countries,” said a senior government functionary. “There is lot of pressure on India and China to agree to proposed climate treaty but we are resisting jointly”.

A UN background note for the summit calls upon all countries to take responsible action for mitigating climate change with carbon emission levels almost touching the threshold level of 400 particles per million (PPM).

The government is sending environment minister Prakash Javadekar for the summit where he is expected to express India’s dismay at the proposed climate deal being discussed. “I will express India’s point of view strongly at the summit. We will not allow out interest to be compromised at any cost,” Javadekar said.

At the sidelines of the summit, India will also sign an agreement of phasing out of mercury called Minamata Convention.

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

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.