Taking on an aggressive posture before the crucial climate change meet in Paris next month, India plans to analyse the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of developed countries to identify those nations that have volunteered to contribute less than their fair share in combating climate change and mount pressure on them to do more.
“The proposed contributions of a number of countries such as Russia and the US have been rated as inadequate by civil society and non-government organisations (NGOs) across the globe. We now intend to do our own analysis to see what kind of responsibilities each country is discharging and negotiate accordingly,” an official from the Ministry of Environment told BusinessLine .
INDCs are the actions that individual governments intend to take as part of the climate deal that is expected to be sealed at COP-21 meet in Paris. As many as 190 countries are working towards a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping a check on global warming.
“It has already been established that it is most of the developed countries that have contributed to global warming so far. All countries need to respect differentiation as a principle to deliver climate justice to the developing world. So, the rich nations, who have been the largest polluters, need to contribute more in dealing with the problem at hand,” the official said.
New Delhi is hoping that other countries, too, carry out their analysis of INDCs so that pressure on under-performing countries could be jointly mounted.
India’s INDCs have been appreciated all over and also recognised as significant by several civil society organisations, the official added. “There is no question of increasing our proposed contributions as we have pledged more than we were required to. Our per capita emissions, compared to countries like the US and China, is very low and we are never going to match their levels,” he said.
According to the Centre for Science and Environment, all estimates show that to meet the 2°C reduction target, US emissions should be at least 50-60 per cent below 1990 levels considering its historical responsibility of causing climate change and its present capability of solving it.
“The 26-28 per cent reduction over 2005 (promised by the US) amounts to just 15-17 per cent over the 1990 levels,” the report said.
Similarly, the Climate Action Tracker – an independent scientific analysis produced by four research organisations tracking climate action –have assessed Russia’s pledge of cutting green house gas emissions by 25-30 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030 was not in line with interpretations of a “fair” approach to reach a 2°C pathway.