The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the government’s decision to ratify the Paris climate change deal. India will officially ratify the deal and submit details of the instruments for implementation with the United Nations on October 2.
Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Human Resource Development, and former Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, said India will now keep up pressure on developed countries to fulfil their pre-2020 commitments since the Paris agreement will come into force only in 2020.
A total of 191 countries have signed the agreement, which was adopted in December 2015, while only 61 nations (making up for 47.79 per cent of global emissions) have ratified it so far. The agreement will take force after at least 55 countries with 55 per cent of the global emissions ratify the deal. Once India ratifies the deal, the total emission count will rise to 51.9 per cent.
The world, through the implementation of the Paris agreement under which the signatories will submit instruments and means by way of which they will reduce emissions, intends to keep global rise in temperatures under 2 degree Celsius.
Environmental scientists, however, believe the measures may not be enough to restrict global warming to the desired limit, even through the Paris agreement. Without the successful implementation of the agreement, however, temperatures are expected to increase by over 4 degree Celsius by the end of the century.
The European Union is likely to ratify the deal before the end of next week, which would help cross the threshold, officially enforcing the agreement.
The next Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Marrakech, Morocco, in November, is likely to begin with the agreement coming into force.