New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on said Sunday that his government will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change on October 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi.
Modi made the announcement while addressing the BJP conclave in Kerala, where they were celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.
"There is one work left in the CoP21 (Conference of Parties). Ratification is yet to be done and India too is yet to do it. Today on the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, I announce that India will ratify the decisions on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi," he said.
India accounts for around 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this month that 60 countries accounting for around 48 percent of emissions had already joined the agreement.
The Paris Agreement asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Last week, Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said he expects to announce that countries accounting for over 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions have formally joined the treaty - the threshold needed to trigger the landmark agreement - when he presides over the 22nd U.N. Climate Conference in Marrakesh that starts on Nov. 7.
The Morocco conference is expected to hammer out the difficult details of how to make the agreement work and raise the $100 billion needed each year to meet its ambitious goals.
Mezouar said developed countries are expected to come up with $100 billion in climate financing each year, with half of that going to help countries adapt to green energy and the other half to mitigating the effects of climate change.
