India Sunday termed "positive" the outcome of climate talks in Poland as it sets nations on the path for successful implementation of the historic Paris Agreement, and asserted it engaged in the negotiations "constructively" while protecting the country's key interests.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries earlier Sunday finalised a set of rules that will make the 2015 Paris deal to curb global warming operational in 2020, after a two-week summit. The outcome of the talks in the mining city of Katowice aims to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2C.
"India considers the outcome of COP-24 a positive one which addresses concerns of all parties and sets us on the path towards successful implementation of the Paris Agreement," an official statement said.
The conference was significant as it focused on three key issues finalization of guidelines, modalities and rules for the implementation of the Paris deal, the conclusion of 2018 Facilitative Talanoa Dialogue and the stocktake of pre-2020 actions implementation and ambition.
However, a leading Indian environment advocacy group termed the rulebook "weak" and "completely insufficient". It said the COP's refusal to take the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report on 1.5C seriously undermines the Paris Agreement.
Chandra Bhushan, the deputy director general of Centre for Science and Environment, said in Katowice the rulebook "is completely insufficient to drive ambitious climate action."
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