India has secured its interest in Paris agreement: Prakash Javadekar

New Delhi: India has been a strong advocate of the principles of equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilties (CBDR) in the climate change regime and the country has been able to "secure" its interest in the recently signed Paris agreement, the government today said.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the purpose of the agreement, which was adopted at the Conference of Parties (CoP21) recently in Paris, is to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change.

"It (agreement) has recognized the imperative of climate justice and sustainable lifestyles as manifested in patterns of consumption and production with developed countries taking the lead.

"India has been a strong advocate of the principles of equity and CBDR in the climate change regime. India has been able to secure its interest in the agreement," Javadekar said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

Noting that India has consistently emphasised that the path to climate ambition must be paved with equity, the Minister said the Paris agreement "acknowldeges and recognizes" the development imperatives of developing countries.

"Throughout the course of the negotiations, India engaged constructively and proactively. India actively anchored its position in blocks of developing countries including BASIC, LMDC and G-77 and China which fought for protecting the interest of developing countries in the agreement," Javadekar said.

The Paris agreement was adopted on December 12 and it will be open for signature from April 22 2016 to April 21, 2017 in the UN Headquarters in New York.

Replying to another question, he said that developing countries will have development space and will receive support in terms of finance, technology transfer and capacity building from developed countries.

"The Paris agreement maintains differentiation in mitigation actions of developed and developing countries. developed countries will take the lead and undertake economy wide absolute emission reduction targets while developing countries can take variety of action. They would also take longer time for peaking of green house gas emissions," he said.

Javadekar said that as per EDGARv4.3 report, European Commission, Joint Research Centre published in 2015, the global total annual emission is 35.66 billion tons of CO2 equivalent of 2014.

The contribution of developed countries like US is 5.33 billion tons of CO2 equivalent and EU is 3.41 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent while India's contribution is only 2.34 billion tons.

He said in terms of per capita emissions, the contribution of developed countries like US is 16.50 tons of CO2 equivalent per capita and EU is 6.69 tons of CO2 equivalent per capita while India's per capita emission is only 1.8 tons of CO2 equivalent.

Replying to another question, he said the issue of ensuring healthy economic growth rate amid climate change related challenges has been addressed in the Paris agreement which emphasizes the intrinsic relationship that climate actions, responses and impacts have with equitable access to sustainable development and eradication of poverty.

"Agreement also mandates an obligation for developed countries to provide financial resources to developing countries. As per the decision adopted by CoP21 at Paris, Green Climate Fund (GCF), as one of the entities entrusted with the operation of the financial mechanism of the Convention (UNFCCC) 'shall' serve the Paris agreement," he said.

Replying to another question, he said that India in its submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) or climate action plan has envisaged reduction of carbon intensity of its GDP by 33-35 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

"This would be based on the measures to enhance energy efficiency, expansion of renewable energy capacity from 35 GW (upto March 2015) to 175 GW by 2022 and more beyond it," Javadekar said.