US envoy to UN hopeful of India's participation in climate change deal

United States Permanent Representative at the UN Samantha Power has struck an optimistic note about India's participation in a climate change agreement at the Paris summit saying that its national action plan is beyond the expectations a year ago.

Asked at a press conference Tuesday about how she saw India's position as an "outlier" in the climate change negotiations, Power said: "They've come forward with a really important national action plan that I think few would have expected a year ago."

During her recent trip to India, she said it was clear that "at the highest levels" officials were aware that economic development could be endangered by climate change if the temperatures continued to rise. "More importantly, there is a growing public interest, I think, in the fate of discussions on the environment, on pollution, and indeed on what's happening in Paris," she added.

Power also conceded India's priority for development, a point that President Barack Obama has come to recognise. "President Obama has stressed - as has Prime Minister Modi - the critical importance of India being able to continue to lift its people out of poverty," she said. "But lifting people out of poverty is not incompatible with an ambitious climate agreement."

Power's remarks were conciliatory toward India in contrast to Secretary of State John Kerry's assertion last month singling out India as a "challenge" to finding an agreement on combating climate change at the Paris conference.

"We've got a lot of focus on India right now to try to bring them along," Kerry was quoted as saying. "It's a challenge."

This drew a rebuke from Environment Minister Prakash Javedekar, who called Kerry's comments "unwarranted and unfair". He added: "The attitude of some of the developed countries is the challenge for the Paris conclusion."

India's action plan for the summit undertakes to cut emissions intensity by 33 to 35 percent below the 2005 levels by 2030, by when it would also increase the share of electricity generated without fossil fuels to 40 percent from today's 30 percent.

Answering a question if Obama was viewed with skepticism in Paris because the US Congress and the Republican candidates for president were opposed to his climate change initiatives, Power cited India as an example to buttress the administration's credibility.

"I think our dialogue with India and the plan that they have produced and some of the cooperation that we are undertaking on clean energy comes from people's recognition that much of what the president has set in motion here in the United States is going to be enduring," she said.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)