Modi urges ‘concrete’ deal:

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Thursday for a “comprehensive and concrete” agreement on climate change in December, as he addressed African leaders at a major summit in New Delhi.

Modi said no one had contributed less to global warming than India and Africa, warning that “the excess of (the) few cannot become the burden of many”.

He was speaking as world leaders prepare to meet in Paris in December to try to reach an agreement on tackling climate change, with the goal of capping warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels. “We are each making enormous efforts with our modest resources to combat climate change,” the Indian premier told delegates from all 54 African Union nations gathered in New Delhi.

“So, when the world meets in Paris in December, we look to see a comprehensive and concrete outcome that is based on the well established principles in the UN Convention on Climate Change.”

Modi also invited African nations to join an alliance of solar-rich countries that he plans to launch in Paris on November 30.

India has pledged to generate 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources within 15 years in an action plan submitted to the UN. (AFP)

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