Chief negotiator Ravi Shankar Prasad pushes for Doha Amendment ratification by April 2017

Seeking a clear definition of climate justice in the Paris Agreement implementation guidelines and pushing for uninterrupted flow of finance from developed countries to meet the targets of the agreement are on top of India’s agenda at the UN climate summit here, according to Environment Minister Anil M. Dave.

After concluding a closed-door meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Mr. Dave told The Hindu that given the uncertainties of what a Trump administration will do on climate change, Mr. Kerry urged the major economies to “keep the show going on”.

“All major economies, except Russia, were present in this meeting and we decided to continue to take things forward with respect to the Paris Agreement,” the Minister said.

However, he emphasised the importance of finance in ensuring that things go as planned with the implementation of the agreement. “In the calculations of financial aid disbursed, there must be no ifs and buts. We are demanding a transparent system where the $100 billion pledged by developed countries is made accessible to us. Currently, only $2 billion are there in the fund.”

On the question of “climate justice”, a term repeatedly invoked by India, Mr. Dave said climate justice for India was the same as receiving finance from developed countries. However, he admitted that the term required “fine-tuning” and parties at the summit must aim to clearly define climate justice in the implementation guidelines.

On Tuesday, 20 countries joined the India-led International Solar Alliancethat calls for cooperation to boost solar energy infrastructure and receive clean energy financing.

However, Morocco which boasts of the world’s largest solar power plant at Ouarzazate is not included in the ISA.

“According to the definition of the ISA, only countries that lie between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn can join this Alliance, hence Morocco has not been included in the ISA. However, we are open to collaborations with them,” Mr. Dave said.

The Minister also stressed on the importance of the pre-2020 action, aimed to immediately stave off the worst impacts of the climate crisis. “We made this demand both in Kigali and are making it here in COP22 as well,” he said.

Speaking at a separate session of the facilitative dialogue on pre-2020 India’s chief negotiator Ravi Shankar Prasad said that ambition on curbing global warming cannot be in cold storage and said that it would be unwise to address climate action only in the context of post-2020 ambition.

“We need a concrete roadmap, which is early and time bound and countries must aim to ratify the Doha Amendment by April 2017 for the 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.”