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    India keeps close watch as US returns to Paris climate deal

    Synopsis

    The global climate agenda is set for considerable recalibration in the days to come with President Biden’s first set of Presidential orders giving top priority to this issue.

    BidenAP
    The new instrument of acceptance of the Paris agreement by US President Biden on January 20 was deposited with the UN Secretary-General the same day. The Paris agreement will enter into force for the US on February 19, according to an official statement.
    New Delhi: The global climate agenda is set for considerable recalibration in the days to come with President Biden’s first set of Presidential orders giving top priority to this issue. As the Biden administration formally returns to the Paris climate deal over the next month or so, it is expected to push for greater stress on countries like India to spell out even more ambitious climate action targets, pledge for carbon neutrality like China, and more.

    Sources in the government said that while there is no fresh outreach from the US administration on the climate change issue so far, it is highly likely to come up ahead of the 47th G-7 summit in UK in June where prime minister Modi is also an invitee. With the US returning as a powerful advocate to the climate cause, its approach will be closely watched, especially given the misgivings among the developing nations on lack of climate finance and unfair climate action expectations. At India’s end, its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) or climate action targets as spelt out under the Paris deal are considered reasonably ambitious.
    India is also one of the few countries which is on track to meet the 2009 goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to not more than 2 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial level. Given these targets, the country also strongly defends its right to grow and ensure an improved per capita security and infrastructure for its huge population. The developed world’s own targets of going carbon neutral — also an ambition that the new US climate envoy John Kerry has expressed for the US — also does not cut as much ice with India. India instead demands that pre-2020 climate actions and commitments be accounted for and historical responsibility like the legacy of greenhouse emissions that arose due to the developed world’s industrialisation, be addressed first.

    However, with Kerry at the helm of the US climate change mission, the emphasis from the Western world — on taller climate action targets, more emission cuts and reduction in coal usage — is expected to grow even more forceful. The US return to climate talks comes ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), slated for November 2021 in the United Kingdom. The run-up to COP26 is bound to focus on getting nations to push up emission reduction targets. Considerable ‘consensus-building’ has already begun under the UK Presidency to nudge various nations from both the developed and developing world to announce more commitment to the climate cause.


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    ( Originally published on Jan 21, 2021 )
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