Javadekar says India’s interests have been protected in global climate deal

PARIS: Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar described the new global climate agreement as a “great victory for humanity”. He said that the Paris round of talks was an “absolute success” as it was able to bring the “world together to promise the new generation that we are working collectively to give a better earth”.

Javadekar, who will have to defend the agreement in Parliament when he returns to New Delhi, stressed “we have been successful to keep our national interest alive”. Ahead of the Paris talks, he had stressed that India was being a proactive player.

The minister had said India was working toward a collective effort to address the global challenge of climate change.

Late on Saturday night, hours after the deal had been sealed, Javadekar said that India “proactively engaged with the world” and worked with other countries to resolve differences. “We worked on those and now there is this agreement,” he said. The environment minister is expected to make a statement in Parliament on the outcome of the Paris talks. India has been able to safeguard its development space through its consistent insistence on the need to implement the UN climate convention’s principle of differential obligations and responsibilities between the rich industrialised countries and developing countries.

Responding to concessions New Delhi had to make in the effort to secure the climate deal, Javadekar said, “When 196 countries are putting their efforts together, you need to accommodate without changing the thrust of the agreement. We have done everything to maintain the thrust.”

He stressed that there were no obligations on developing countries like India. “There is differentiated treatment and that is logical, that is justice.” In his intervention in the open assembly of the conference, Javadekar said, “The agreement differentiates between the actions of developed and developing countries across its elements.”

The minister also congratulated meeting chair French foreign minister Laurent Fabius and his team for their “vision, patience and firmness,” which resulted in the “historical agreement.”

Noting that the Paris Agreement acknowledges and recognises the development imperatives of India and other developing countries, Javadekar said that the agreement “supports” the right of countries like India “to development and their efforts to harmonise development with environment, while also protecting the interests of the most vulnerable.” “We are happy that the agreement has unequivocally acknowledged the imperative of climate justice—which we have no doubt reflects common sentiment—and has based itself on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities,” he said.

Javadekar told reporters that it was a “historic day” and that the Paris meeting has “succeeded.” Refering to the broader significance of the agreement, he said: “Paris was under terror attack last month. This month Paris has proved that world can come together to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.”

(The reporter travelled to Paris at the invitation of Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), the South Asia node of Climate Action Network, a consortium of several thousand international NGOs working on climate change and a designated UN observer organisation.)