PM Modi may attend Climate Change Summit in Paris on Nov 30

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Paris on November 30 to take part in the inaugural session of the UN climate change summit which aims to achieve a universal agreement on climate change.

Although there is no official annoucement on the Prime Minister visit, it is learnt that Modi will join more than 50 heads of states and governments to attend the inaugural session of Conference of Parties (CoP21) which concludes on December 11.

Sources said that Modi, who will have a hectic overseas itinerary in November with two back-to-back visits covering four countries, will leave for Paris after he returns from Singapore trip scheduled for November 23-24.

This is probably amongst the very few occasions when heads of states and governments will attend the inaugural session of a CoP apparently to avoid a Copenhagen summit-like situation when the top leaders, who were present at the concluding session, failed to arrive at a consensus.

India, which recently announced its climate action plans or Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of cutting carbon emissions by upto 35 per cent, has made it clear that it expected developed nations to come out with more ambitious climate action plans.

Modi himself has talked about "climate justice" and sustainable lifestyle by developed countries to help combat the threat of climate change.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that India expects an "equitable and just" climate agreement in Paris and does not want the Paris summit to fail unlike the Copenhagen summit which the minister said people have termed as "flopenhagen".

The Paris conference is expected to attract close to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.