India to ratify Paris accord at the earliest: Arvind Panagariya

Arvind Panagariya, head of the Niti Ayog, and India's Sherpa to the G20 summit, on Monday said that New Delhi plans to ratify the Paris accord to cut climate warming emissions as soon as possible adding, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are very much on within the development context.

Panagariya briefed media about the interventions made by India in the communique, which was negotiated by him at the G20 summit at Hangzhou.

Talking about the climate change, he said, "I felt we were not quite ready yet in terms of the domestic actions that are required for us to ratify or at least commit to ratify within 2016. So we plan to do it as soon as possible."

Though there was an issue with respect to whether the G20 will endorse ratifying the Paris agreement before 2016, he said that there were some disagreements and the G20 had welcomed those countries that has tried, ratified or plant to ratify within 2016.

While India is seeking greater flexibility on the issue, China and the United States on Saturday ratified the Paris accord.

Panagariya said that communique had five major parts, including on growth, international financial governance, trade and investment, development.

On growth, he said, "This is traditional agenda but with a neutral interest because China brought in innovation digital economy the new industrial revolution on the agenda."

He said that the second intervention was made on the international financial governance and traditional issues like sharing of tax information were discussed.

On trade and investment, he said trade is an ongoing agenda and investment is the new agenda.

"The Chinese presidency has put on the table. On trade, there were very strong sentiments among all the sherpas that we should stand firmly against protectionism and support multilateralism," he added.

On the investment part, Panagariya said there were some guiding principles which were worked out as a separate document that the G20 has endorsed.

There were talks which also focused on development mostly carried forward by the present presidency and there was separate section on the significant challenges which includes Brexit, terrorism, refugees.

He added that a new issue, which has been put in this year, is the Antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Talking about the Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), he asserted that the problem with the BEPS is that only G20 nations cannot successfully carry the agenda because it can be shifted outside G20 countries as well.

He said that the meeting also called for ratification for UN convention against corruption to improve public and private sector transparency.