By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, OCT 02, 2016: INDIA has claimed that it will protect the interests and strongly present the viewpoint of the developing countries at the upcoming COP 22 at Marrakech, Morocco. In his opening remarks at an interaction with the media on various issues related to Climate Change here yesterday, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Mr Anil Madhav Dave, said that India will put across its views based on Indian, or Gandhian lifestyle in Morocco. The Environment Minister said that issues related to raising finance under Green Climate Fund (GCF) and technology transfer will also be raised at COP22. Mr Dave said that a Pavilion will be set up at Marrakech to showcase the steps taken by India on climate change.  
  
The upcoming negotiations at COP 22 are very crucial to advance on key issues.   

Following will be the key priorities:

(i) Enhancing Ambition and promoting action between 2016-2020:  Paris Agreement is for post-2020 period.  Currently, we are operating under the pre-2020 action framework and must not wait any further to take action.  The developed countries should ratify the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.  At Morocco, we must agree to set up an action roadmap for 2016-2020 for raising ambition and achieving pre-2020 goals.

(ii) Mobilising means of implementation i.e finance, technology and capacity-building support before and after 2020:  USD 11 billion per year climate finance goal has not been met.  At Morocco, India will insist for a concrete roadmap from developed countries.  USD 10.3 billion committed to the Green Climate Fund does not match the enormous finance and technology requirements indicated by developing countries in their INDCs.  On the technology and capacity-building front also, not much headway has been made.  The new Technology Framework under the Paris Agreement should help to remove barriers to technology access and provide finance for meeting higher technological costs. 

(iii) Furthering the cause of Adaption and loss and damage:  India is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  The first review of the loss and damage mechanism at COP 22 is an opportunity for India to ensure that this mechanism provides tangible and concrete solutions.  Most important of these would be to ensure that there are tools to address adaptation, financial risk management and finance needs for dealing with extreme and slow onset events.
 
(iv) Detailing rule and modalities under Paris Agreement:  Paris Agreement has laid a broad framework, but guidelines and rules need to be detailed for the Agreement to be operational.  Pending task such as modalities for market mechanism, transparency arrangements, features of NDCs, facilitative dialogue, must be expedited, starting from Morocco COP.    Several new bodies such as the Paris Committee on capacity-building, the Technology Framework etc must also be ready before 2020.

(v)  Furthering the agenda on sustainable lifestyles and climate justice:  it is important that apart from emission cuts, we also focus on measures that involve broader participation.  People in developed countries live extravagant lifestyles with high carbon footprint.  Simple everyday changes in lifestyles, when practiced by a large number of people around the globe, collectively will make a huge impact.  The power of choices that each one of us makes every day like the food we eat, the way we travel, the things we buy etc are not realised.  When choices that 7 billion world citizens make are put together, it impacts our planet in a major way.  Therefore, each choice counts.  India has made a commitment in its INDC, on sustainable lifestyles and will continue to push this agenda forward in Morocco.

India is strongly committed to fight climate change and assures that it will make every possible effort within its capacity to achieve a significant outcome in Marrakech, Morocco.    India will set up an exclusive Pavilion at COP 22, hosting various sessions in the form of panel discussions, presentations and documentaries.  These will showcase India’s actions on climate change and will be an opportunity for a global audience and invited experts to engage in discussion and generate new solutions.

India will ratify the Paris Agreement (on Climate Change) on October 2, 2016, the day of Gandhi Jayanti.  Ratification by India will help generate the political momentum necessary to bring the Amendment in force. 

India’s decision to ratify the Paris agreement has come after ensuring compliance of domestic legal requirements, internal discussions and after obtaining clarity from UNFCCC with regard to transparency and participation of Parties in the future processes. Countries have been assured by UNFCCC that other Parties will be given sufficient time to ratify the Paris Agreement, at least till 2018, so that future decision-making is as inclusive as possible.  India through its participation in the Paris Agreement, under the UNFCCC process, will articulate the interests of the poor and vulnerable groups.

India led from the front at COP 21 last year, to ensure the inclusion of climate justice and sustainable lifestyles in the Paris Agreement and launched the International Solar Alliance. India will continue to champion such action-oriented initiatives and joint ventures.