India not to commit any climate targets now  

COP20

India will not make any announcement of its plans for addressing the climate changes at the ongoing Lima summit, but will hand over the plans to UN by June 2015 only, reported The Economic Times.

India does not have any intention to make INDC (intended nationally determined contributions) related announcements in Lima. India will finalize and submit INDC only by June, said Susheel Kumar, interim head, Indian delegation, Lima climate conference.

However, there has been speculation that India will make an announcement, with the most polluting countries like the U.S., China, and European Union revealing their emission reduction plans.

Each country needs to design its own INDC plan by keeping in mind their domestic circumstances and goals. The plan to be announced by India will be considered as its comprehensive climate action.

COP20All countries were supposed to submit their INDCs by March 2015, ahead of the Paris summit in December.

Nevertheless, India is of the opinion that the March deadline is difficult to meet. First of all, clarity is needed on what constitutes an INDC. It is difficult to finalize on matters that do not have a template and a decision.

According to Kumar, India has begun the task of creating a plan covering relevant topics based on a standard template.

Kumar also expressed the opinion that many countries will not be able to meet the March target for INDCs.

Further, there is no agreement among countries on whether the contributions should focus only on emission reductions or would include efforts to adapt to climate change, finance, technology transfer and capacity building.

INDCs would be addressed in the context of enhanced actions and would include all the issues. It would cover not just the missions but also other initiatives under the national action plan, and the state action plans, explained, Indian environment minister Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi.

As part of its preparations, New Delhi has commissioned The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and the Institute of Economic Growth to formulate India’s growth path, emission intensity trajectory and emissions projection.

Experts have been asked to impart a vision up to 2050, instead of restricting the study to 2020. The first installment of the report is due in January.

There are better chances of India going beyond already identified initiatives, arriving at a comprehensive action.

India may demand that contributions that form the basics of the new global compact should be balanced and all the five aspects of addressing the climate change should be included in the contributions.

The committee is also analyzing the low carbon report prepared by Planning Commission.

The environment ministry has asked other ministries and organizations to assess the climate-related and relevant action, and identify initiatives that will be undertaken.

Sabeena Wahid

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