BackIndia to ratify Paris climate agreement on Gandhi Jayanti
Prime Minister Narendra Modi says there is no better way to celebrate the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, who lived a life of minimum carbon footprint
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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India is going to ratify the Paris climate agreement on 2 October, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, ending months of suspense on the matter.
The announcement comes prior to the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) at Marrakech (Morocco) from 7-18 November 2016.
India accounts for 6.96% of world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Modi’s announcement in his address to Bharatiya Janata Party workers at the party’s national council meeting in Kozhikode.
He said there is no better way to celebrate the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, who lived a life of minimum carbon footprint.
“Pandit Deenadayal Upadhyaya had told us about the need to co-exist with nature. On his birth centenary celebrations, let me proudly announce to the world that India will finish the one work pending in the COP 21 (Conference of Parties). The ratification of decisions made in the COP 21 is yet to be done by many countries including India. We shall do it next week, October 2, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi," said Modi.
India’s environment minister Anil Madhav Dave said, “It is a huge step from India".
Last year in December, over 190 countries reached a new global climate deal, Paris Climate Agreement which comes into force from 2020. As per the agreement, the world agreed to check the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degree Celsius over pre-industrial times and make efforts to limit it to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial times by the end the year 2100.
In April 2016, India along with over 170 countries signed the Paris climate agreement that brings together developed and developing nations to combat climate change.
With this ratification, India will join China and Brazil among the BASIC group of nations that have ratified the agreement. Among BASIC nations, India, Russia and South Africa are yet to sign the agreement.
As per the Article 21 of the Paris Agreement, the agreement comes into force “on the 30th day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions" ratify or approve it.
Till now, as per the estimates, 60 countries representing nearly 48% of global emissions have already joined the agreement.
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