India must make alternative proposal on INDCs: Environmentalists

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar's statement at Lima that India will not support review of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) was termed "regressive" by environmental activists, who sought the country offer an alternative proposal.

"Instead of opposing, India should give alternative proposal on how it wants countries to take action based on equity and CBDRC (common but differentiated responsibility and respective capability). Otherwise, it would seem that India is using the issue of equity to block a consensus," said environmentalist Sunita Narain.

A review of INDCs by other global partners is one of the ways in which the principles of equity and CBDRC can be brought back into the climate change negotiations," Centre for Science and Environment's deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said in a statement.

"India is neither supporting the review nor proposing any alternative mechanism," he said.

Standing firm on India's stance with respect to INDCs, Javadekar at the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties at Lima, said the targets must not be subject to any external review and remain strictly "nationally determined".