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 on Monday 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 accerlerate the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change.
"It (agreement) has recognized the imperative of climate justice and sustainable lifesytles 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 Aprivl 21, 2017 in the UN Headquarters in New York. Replying to another question, he said that developing countries will have development space and will recieve 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 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.
