India set to ratify Paris climate change agreement

NEW DELHI: India’s prime minister said yesterday that his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change early next month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will ratify the agreement on October 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, who believed in a minimum carbon footprint.

Modi made the announcement at a meeting of his Bharatiya Janata Party’s leaders in the town of Kozhikode.

India accounts for around 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said 60 countries accounting for 48% of emissions had already joined the agreement.

The Paris Agreement asks 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 2ºC.

Yesterday, Modi said global warming especially poses a threat to coastal countries and cities.

Last week Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said he expects to announce that countries accounting for over 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have formally joined the treaty – the threshold needed to trigger the landmark agreement – at the 22nd UN Climate Conference in Marrakesh that starts on November 7.

The conference will hammer out details of how to make the deal work and raise the $100 billion (R1.4 trillion) needed each year to meet its goals. – AP