Siddharth Dubey
COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, will, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.
France will play a leading international role in hosting this seminal conference, and COP21 will be one of the largest international conferences ever held in the country. The conference is expected to attract close to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society. The leaders of the G20, who met earlier in Antalya, Turkey, showed strong commitment to climate action. And more than 120 heads of State and Government have confirmed their participation in Paris, despite heightened security concerns in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
We see four essential elements for Paris to be a success: durability, flexibility, solidarity, and credibility.
First, durability: Paris must provide a long-term vision consistent with a below two degrees trajectory, and send a clear signal to markets that the low-carbon transformation of the global economy is inevitable, beneficial, and already under way.
Second, the agreement must provide flexibility so it does not need to be continually renegotiated. It must be able to accommodate changes in the global economy and strike a balance between the leadership role of developed countries and the increasing responsibilities of developing countries.
Third, the agreement must demonstrate solidarity, including through financing and technology transfer for developing countries.
Fourth, an agreement must demonstrate credibility in responding to rapidly escalating climate impacts. It must include regular five-year cycles for Governments to assess and strengthen their national climate plans in line with what science demands. Paris must also include transparent and robust mechanisms for measuring, monitoring and reporting progress.
Paris needs to result in a negotiated agreement that will provide a legal framework for moving forward. In addition, a Paris outcome will also include the national climate plans (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs) that countries have voluntarily put forward that will form the baseline for reducing emissions and strengthening resilience.
Paris will also need to include a credible finance package. Many developing countries will need international cooperation, including finance and technology, to help them move toward a low-carbon future. As part of this package, developed countries will need to detail how they will fulfill their previous pledge of mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to support developing countries. And financing for the post 2020 period will also need to be addressed.
Paris will also showcase climate actions that are already underway. Under the “Lima to Paris Action Agenda”, many businesses, cities, states and regions, and civil society groups will be highlighting efforts they are taking to respond to climate change. Many new initiatives will also be announced in Paris that demonstrate a growing commitment to climate action.
A Global Solar Alliance, an idea mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring together countries that receive lot of sunlight, will be formally launched on the opening day of the upcoming climate change conference in Paris. The idea of forging such an alliance was first floated last year following India’s announcement that it will attempt to generate 100 GW of electricity from solar energy by 2022 instead of the 20 GW it was targeting earlier. The effort was to get all the countries in the tropics to switch to solar power as much as possible.
It is encouraging from the Indian point of view that U.S. President Barack Obama during his meeting with the Indian prime minister in January agreed to help finance this planned $100 billion expansion of solar power in the next seven years. With its recent actions, India seems to be pushing hard to achieve its solar power objectives. Solar power projects are being encouraged and accelerated in a big way and the country is moving on track to become one of the largest solar markets in the world. Even Indian Railways is looking to chip in, starting trials of solar powered trains last month. It is also planning to come out with a solar policy for procuring 1000 MW solar power in the next five years.
In light of these government initiatives, India is poised to take a much more confident and dominant role in the climate change negotiations in December. India has set an example of newer types of climate change action that could be employed by other countries and that could also be included in the general global framework. For a successful meet in Paris, India, as one of the most important stakeholders, will clearly need to be in accord with the world’s advanced countries. For this to happen, all sides must reach out and help each other, quite literally, to combat the common challenge of climate change.
Success in Paris depends on us. Now is the time for common sense,compromise and consensus. It is time to look beyond national horizons and to put the common interest first. The people of the world and generations to come count on us to have the vision and courage to seize this historic moment.
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