Paris deal on Gandhi Jayanti: PM

Days after snubbing China by holding out at G20, India agrees to meet year-end deadline on climate agreement ratification

BJP NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING

DAYS AFTER the G20 summit in Hangzhou where it decided not to commit itself to ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change this calendar year, India announced it would ratify the decisions on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

India’s position at the G20 was seen as a snub to China, the summit host, for having blocked New Delhi’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group earlier this year.

Speaking at the BJP national council meeting in Kozhikode, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country would ratify the Paris Agreement on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who led his life with minimum carbon footprint.

“There is one work left in the COP21 (a reference to the 21st meeting of Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Paris last year). Ratification (of the Paris Agreement) is yet to be done and India too is yet to do it. Today, on the birth anniversary of Deendayal Upadhyay, I announce that India will ratify the decisions (under the Paris Agreement) on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi,” Modi said.

In New Delhi, a government official, who did not wish to be named, said: “We would do what is required at a place and time of our choosing. There was overt pressure from the US and China on us to ratify the Paris

PTI Prime Minister Modi with the BJP top brass at the party conclave in Kozhikode, Kerala, on Sunday.