India wards off US-China pressure to ratify Paris deal in 2016

India joins other countries saying they can't ratify the Agreement due to legal issues, even as US and China go ahead

A cautious India today said it has warded off pressure from the US and China to set this year as the deadline to ratify the Paris Agreement, even as the two countries ratified the climate deal ahead of the G20 summit here tomorrow.

India besides several other countries felt that they can not ratify the Paris Agreement due to various legal impediments, the Vice Chairman of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog, Aravind Panagariya said here.

The UN Secretary General had earlier suggested that the Paris climate deal be ratified this year so that it could be implemented.

"There is no deadline to my mind but we will make submissions of progress," said Panagariya, summing the feeling of India and many other countries in this regard.

The joint statement to be released at the end of the G20 summit on September 5 will take into consideration the difficulties in this regard, he said.

"My stand is we could not commit for 2016," Panagariya, India's official representative at the G20 summit, said.

His comments came as China and US in a bid to put pressure on other countries ratified the deal today and handed over their countries' instruments of joining the Paris Agreement separately to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that climate change concerns the well-being and future of humanity.

The Paris Agreement has charted the course for post-2020 global cooperation against climate change, and it indicates that a cooperative, win-win, equitable and fair climate governance mechanism is being shaped.

Depositing the documents together, China and the US have displayed their ambition and determination to jointly tackle a global challenge, Xi said.

Developed countries should honour their commitments and provide financial and technological support to developing countries and enhance their capability in climate actions, Xi added.

Panagariya said besides the climate change, the draft joint statement also refers to refugees, terrorism and anti- microbial resistance.

The two day G20 summit to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off here tomorrow.

G20 members include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States and the European Union.