Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India makes its presence felt at Marrakech' that was published in Newsband

India makes its presence felt at Marrakech

The United Nations conference on climate change in Marrakech, Morocco, focussed on enhanced finance and technology transfer. India should insist on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change getting upheld. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions to contain the rise of the global average temperature is necessary. There is need of high financial flows to both mitigate emissions and prepare communities to adapt to climate change.

In India’s case, new developments in sectors such as construction, transport, energy production, waste and water management, as well as agriculture, can benefit from fresh funding and technology.

Adopting green technologies in power generation has a twin advantage. The local environment is cleaned up, improving the quality of life, and carbon emissions are cut.

There is need to raise pressure on rich countries for technological and funding assistance under the Paris Agreement.  The business and industry today prefer a new path, as energy costs favour renewable sources over fossil fuels. Every country should find its own method to curb emissions.

In all, 196 countries agreed that there was need for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority. This is termed as Marrakech Action Proclamation,

The Marrakech conference did witness dissensions between developed and developing countries. US was threatened that it would be isolated if it pulled out of the Paris climate pact. If things go according to plan, the new climate treaty could come into effect much before the 2020 deadline set in Paris.

The developing countries had a minor victory when they were able to insert a clause, in the final decisions, asking for a scaling up of financial resources. The developing countries refused to be bogged down by the stingy ways of the industrialised countries.

India took the lead in cementing the International Solar Alliance — a group of developed and developing nations that aims to make solar power competitive vis-a-vis conventional energy.