'India offers generous commitments to combat climate change'

India has not shied away from coming forward with "generous commitments" to combat climate change even as developed nations have fallen short of their obligation to provide finance as well as technologies for mitigation, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said.
In a blogpost on the NITI Aayog website today, he said that the responsibility for arresting the climate change phenomenon rests principally with the developed countries.
Panagariya said that commitments by India are more ambitious than even much publicised offers by China.
"Today, emission intensity of India's GDP is approximately half that of China. And yet we have offered to cut this intensity by a third by 2030 relative to the level prevailing in 2005," he said in the post 'India's Generous INDICs'.

Under the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDICs) to combat climate change, India would cut its emissions per-unit of GDP (gross domestic product) by 33 per cent to 35 per cent by 2030 over those in 2005.
Also, it would raise the installed electric capacity from non-fossil-fuel-based energy sources to 40 per cent and create new carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through expansion of the forest cover by 2030.

"Under established and accepted principles, the responsibility for arresting the climate change phenomenon rests principally with the developed countries.
"If they want the developing countries such as India to aggressively join hands, they must minimally stand ready to provide financing through grants for the purchase of costly technologies for mitigation," he said.

So far they have fallen well short of their obligation in this dimension. Despite this fact, "India has not shied away from coming forward with generous commitments to combat climate change", Panagariya said.
Panagariya's post comes ahead of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held during November 30 to December 11, 2015, in Paris.
The INDCs will form a part of the discussions and negotiations there.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also said that though India did not create the climate change problem, it would not shy away from contributing to its solution.

The United States, Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada jointly contributed 40.6 per cent of the flow emissions in 2012, Panagariya said.