India ratifies Paris Agreement, but with caveats

Leaves window open to exit or reduce commitments, in case global scenario changes

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday passed the decision to ratify the Paris Agreement, but with conditions.

The Cabinet decided India would ratify the global climate change pact ‘in the context’ of its development agenda, availability of means of global climate finance, an assessment of how the rest of the world is doing to combat climate change, and predictable and affordable access to cleaner source of energy.

The caveat leaves the window open for India to rethink its ratification or targets, in case the commitments from the developed world on providing finance and technology to developing countries do not come through. It also leaves the option open for India to revisit the ratification and its commitments under the agreement, in case any key country reviews or revises its commitments under the agreement, such as the United States. Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the US presidency, has threatened to do so several times during his campaign.

Once India deposits its instruments of ratification with the United Nations (UN) on October 2, it would take the total number of countries on board to 62 and the total greenhouse gas emissions covered to 51.59 per cent. The agreement requires 55 countries with at least 55 per cent of the emissions covered by ratifying nations.

The Union Cabinet decision comes on a day the European Union (EU) is fast-tracking negotiations within its member states, in the hopes of ratifying the pact en bloc by October 7.

Under the rules, the Paris Agreement would come into force 30 days after the two qualifying thresholds of countries and emissions covered are met. If the EU is able to ratify by October 7, this would ensure the threshold is met in time for the UN negotiations, beginning November 7 in Morocco, to formally launch the agreement operations.

While announcing the decision of the Cabinet on Wednesday, the government tried to pitch itself as a country continuing to play the leadership role in climate action. The swift Cabinet decision, coming within days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement to ratify the pact, stood in deep contrast to the government’s earlier claims that procedural issues would impede ratification this year.

The caveats inserted during the Cabinet approval make India the 12th country to do so. While China and Belgium put caveats to cover their geographical territories, other countries have placed conditions and caveats to protect options of future international legal recourse. Small island nations such as Tuvalu and Micronesia have tried to retract from the terms they had to sign up for under the Paris Agreement.

These and other small island countries, under pressure from the US and the EU, had forgone their rights to file for compensation, in case of inevitable damage caused by inaction of countries on climate change. But during their ratification process, some of these countries had asserted their legal rights — under other international laws to seek compensation — stand in place.

The legal consequences of such assertions and caveats by countries such as India are yet to be analysed in light of the fact that Article 27 of the Paris Agreement explicitly states: “No reservations may be made to this Agreement.” The Indian ratification does not use the word ‘reservations’ but says India does so in a certain context.