India says Katowice climate talks positive, green group disagrees

Climate change talks in Katowice, Poland, were "positive" as they set nations on the path for implementing the Paris Agreement, said on India on Sunday as a leading environment group called the results "completely insufficient".

Negotiators from around 200 countries in Katowice on Sunday finalised a set of rules that will make the 2015 Paris agreement to curb global warming operational in 2020. The outcome of the talks at the two-week summit aims to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius limit.

"India considers the outcome of COP-24 a positive one which addresses concerns of all parties and sets us on the path towards successful implementation of the Paris Agreement," said an official statement. COP-24 is the informal name for the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

The rulebook drafted at the conference focused on three key issues: finalisation of guidelines, modalities and rules for the implementation of the Paris agreement, the conclusion of 2018 Facilitative Talanoa Dialogue, and stock-taking of pre-2020 actions implementation and ambition.

An Indian statement in Delhi said the country reaffirmed its promise to implement the Paris agreement and to act collectively with other nations to address climate change.

"India engaged positively and constructively in all the negotiations while protecting India's key interests including recognition of different starting points of developed and developing countries, flexibilities for developing countries and consideration of principles including equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC)," according to the statement.

India said the Katowice talks established the importance of climate finance—the concept that developed nations will give poor ones financial resources to “support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change”.

"Parties have also agreed to initiate the work on setting up the new collective finance goals post-2020 from the floor of USD 100 billion," it said.

But the Centre for Science and Environment, a green NGO, called the rulebook "weak" and "completely insufficient". It said the COP's refusal to take the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report on 1.5C seriously undermines the Paris Agreement.

Chandra Bhushan, the group’s deputy director general, said in Katowice the rulebook "is completely insufficient to drive ambitious climate action."