India’s environment minister threw cold water on the hopes of an international climate treaty, saying Wednesday that his country’s emissions would increase and that it wouldn’t offer a plan for cutting them ahead of negotiations next year in Paris.
The announcement from Prakash Javadekar, as reported by the New York Times, comes a day after countries left a United Nations climate summit in New York that sought to build goodwill leading into next year’s negotiations. A deal without serious commitments from India would likely prevent a deal that secures enough cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020 to avoid a 2 degree Celsius temperature rise by 2100, which nations are seeking. Most scientists blame greenhouse gases, mainly through burning fossil fuels, for increasing climate change.
“What cuts?” Javadekar said, according to the Times. “That’s for more developed countries. The moral principle of historic responsibility cannot be washed away.”
The remarks provide a window into new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s thinking on the issue. While Modi supported climate change initiatives when he ran the state of Gujarat, he was elected on a nationalist agenda of economic revival and has lately been cagey about his climate views.
Javadekar’s view that India is a developing country is key. It’s the same stance that thwarted previous climate negotiations, as India and China argued restraining emissions would keep millions of their citizens in poverty. The focus on bringing people out of poverty would lead to a necessary increase of emissions, Javadekar said.
China, however, said at Tuesday’s summit that it is “ready” to cooperate on international climate negotiations. But getting India, the world’s third-highest greenhouse gas emitter, on board is also crucial for a successful treaty.
