First climate draft unveiled; India 'encouraged' by progress

On the fifth day of negotiations, the first drafttextof the Paris agreement on climate change came out today which India described as satisfactory and asserted that it was "encouraged" by the progress.
"At the moment this is a shorter draft but everything which we (India) got inserted is still there. It's five pages shorter," India's key negotiator Ajay Mathur said.
He said that the French president has spoken of "urgency" of moving ahead in resolving the kinds of issues and India will continue to work together to get closer to an agreement.
This is the more or less the same text which was released in the Bonn conference, officials said.

India also sought global support for bringing down the cost of renewable power to reduce reliance on coal.
Elaborating on the process, Mathur said that tomorrow evening the negotiation text as evolved by the various discussion groups would be consolidated and handed over to the presidency who will then create spin off groups on various unresolved issues that will then be the focus of negotiations.

"We are encouraged that on fourth day, we had some progress. We agree with the presidency that we need to move ahead. There is a huge amount of work in progress which we hope will move towards a greater degree of competition before the presidency takes over the text and starts discussion. We are pleased with fact that progress has been made," he said.

Following three days of hectic parleys over a complex 54-page draft pact, negotiators released a document five pages shorter but still there was reportedly no agreement on about 250 undecided options across the text.
Targeted over its plan to expand coal usage for energy generation, India sought international support to bring down the cost of electricity from renewable energy to make sure that a large part of power generation in the country comes from this sector.
"Since yesterday, there have been a large number of comments on our renewable energy ambition. We want to make sure renewables provide an increasing amount of electricity. As the electricity sector grows, we want that a larger fraction of that growth comes from renewables," Mathur said.

"What we would like, as soon as possible, the cost of electricity from renewable becomes less than cost of electricity from coal. There is a concerted effort to bring the prices down. We also look forward to international support to bring prices down further," he said.
"We are looking at partnership and International Solar Alliance (ISA) is one such example which helps us move in that direction. We would be willing to take pole position in trying to see how we can enhance the fraction of RE (Renewable Energy) in our grid," Mathur said.
On being repeatedly asked if India's plan on coal usage for energy generation was affecting the negotiations in any way, Mathur said it was not the case.

"It does not affect the negotiations. We live in a society where each one of us is responsible for our actions. It is important that we put forward our point of view. We are trying to meet the energy needs of all Indians," he said.
"We are trying to meet the energy needs increasingly through renewables. What cannot be met through it will be met by coal. Over a period of time, as the fraction of renewables increases, the fraction of coal decreases. RE is the new story. We want to focus on that," he added.