Pak-India Climate Change in Paris?

Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif also had a casual meeting on the sidelines of the climate summit, warmly shaking hands before sitting down for a brief chat. He added that India would have 175 Gw of renewables by 2022, and had already imposed levies on coal and rationalised subsidies on petroleum products.

“We have set ambitious targets”. “I think the hindrance in relations between the two countries is counter productive and it should be removed”, the Prime Minister said while talking to the media persons here on his arrival from Paris.

A White House statement said the two leaders discussed their efforts to “put in place a lasting framework to address global climate change”.

Earlier, while inaugurating the India Pavilion at the Conference of Party (CoP21), Modi said, climate change “is the result of global warming that came from the prosperity and progress of an industrial age powered by fossil fuels”.

Modi, who spearheaded this partnership with leaders of several African countries, continues to show strong commitment to expand renewable energy in India. “Anything else would be morally wrong”, Modi wrote in an article in Britain’s Financial Times. Equity means that national commitments must be consistent with the carbon space nations occupy.

We want a comprehensive equitable and durable agreement in Paris. And I would just like to once again reiterate that the responsibility that India has will be fully undertaken and fulfilled by it. And we will be working with all countries in the world to ensure that development and protection of the environment go hand in hand.

Modi made it clear that any incident of “atrocity” was a “blot” on society as well as the nation whose “pain” should be felt by all and asserted that unity and harmony is the only way to take the country forward. This includes intellectual property. “This is what we see in (Mahatma) Gandhiji’s life and his advice that the world has enough for everyone’s need but not for anyone’s greed”, the PM said. “For this, we need to scale up Green Climate Fund that will improve access to technology and intellectual property”.

“Those with luxury of choice should sharply reduce emissions”, he added at the inauguration, hauling up developed nations for jettisoning bulk of the emission cuts onto developing nations with their dependence on energy sources such as coal, which has been criticised previously by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Excellencies, The presence of 196 countries tells us that we have a chance to unite behind a common goal.