UN climate meet: CSE urges India to submit INDCs

In the run up to UN climate change conference in Paris later this year, a green body today urged India to work with developing nations and push for a "fair and equitable" global deal which saves the world from catastrophic climate impacts.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has asked the country to submit two Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)- conditional and unconditional, to the global body.
INDCs are voluntary pledges that countries are making to cut carbon pollution ahead of the big climate change meeting in Paris at the end of the year. The meeting is supposed to come out with a new global deal to tackle climate change from 2020 onwards.

"India should put out INDCs that are based on equity and fairness. This is the only way we shame big polluters to reduce their emissions and make them in line with the planetary limits," said Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE.
Under the unconditional INDCs, CSE has recommended that India should agree to do all it can with its own resources and it should be based on principles of equity.
It said that India has already announced ambitious solar and wind energy targets and under Green India Mission, it has pledged to increase forest cover to the extent of 5 million hectares (mha) and improve its quality on another 5 mha of forest and non-forest lands.

"It should also announce targets to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 2030. Under the Cancun Agreement, India had pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 20-25 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.
"Reducing the emissions intensity by 40 per cent by 2030 compared to the 2005 levels is achievable. All these are co-benefit agenda as they would reduce energy consumption, air and water pollution, import bill of the fossil fuels as well as improve environment quality," the CSE said.