India is world’s third largest carbon polluter.
Climate change is a clear and present danger, but is has also become a political tool as political leaders are playing games with it, most noticeably by the US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as they are on the opposite sides, while Trump ridicules it as a joke, Clinton is all committed for it, very much like the sitting US President, Barak Obama.
Now, as India announces to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement on 2 October, on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, she has got a shot in arms as India is one of the major players in the global economy and the world’s third largest carbon polluter, after China and the United States, India’s participation is crucial to enforce the agreement. Little wonder, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz hailed Modi’s announcement as a “major milestone” on Sunday.
Indian decision to sign the Treaty, will give the climate pact a major boost needed to go into effect this year as the carbon-cutting rules to come into effect, must be ratified by at least 55 countries that tantamount to at least 55 percent of the world’s emissions. 61 countries have already agreed to sign the Treaty, but they account for only 47.79 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Now, with India signing it, this percentage will boost to 51.89, that will just be a few percentage points away to become effective and as another 13 countries have promised to ratify it by the end of the year, the Treaty will become an effective weapon to fight the menace of climate change.
That also reflects in the change on the Indian position about the Treaty when the talks began in Paris, India was seen in the opposition camp, but at the end, its position became accommodative as it was critical yet constructive, particularly in getting through commitment by the developed world to subsidies to the developing world by more than $100 billion a year.