India fine-tunes its climate change stance

The fact that the developed world must bear the burden of tackling global warming seems set to be the broad framework of India's climate change strategy.As his ministry fine-tunes its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in the run up to a mega climate conference in Paris at the end of the year, minister Prakash Javadekar was categorical where the bulk of the responsibility must lie.He said: “Historical responsibility is a fact. It cannot be wished away. We are just 2.4 per cent of the world's historical emissions.“It's a matter of historical responsibility therefore that developed world themselves have committed to provide $100 billion annually by 2020. That is a commitment. We are only reminding them of it.”India is among some of the key world economies yet to submit its plans to tackle global warming ahead of the United Nations summit in France in December, where more than 190 countries will seek a deal to halt a damaging rise in temperatures.India has said it will not commit to a “peak year” for its own emissions, arguing that doing so would hamper its drive to beat poverty through economic growth.The government is also contending with a substantially enhanced target for renewable energy of up to 300 GW by 2030 and another for forestry, besides looking at a specific target for energy efficiency as the components that add up to the carbon intensity target.India also plans to project a list of technologies across sectors, besides clean coal technologies, that will be required for the country to achieve a low carbon pathway and sustainable economy in future.“Many other countries have only focused on mitigation but our INDC will focus on all elements that are part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,” the minister explained.Developed countries are keen to impose a uniform and more stringent inspection rules on developing countries under the Paris agreement. France intends to hold a second round of ministerial talks in September and then organise another of the finance ministers in October to find a common ground.There could be a fourth such round of talks too just before the main conference in December.