Climate change: Paris pact should be balanced, ambitious

Leaders of the world’s leading economies said on Monday that the Paris agreement on climate change should be “fair, balanced, ambitious, durable and dynamic”.

In what was the toughest paragraph to be negotiated in the G-20 summit communique this year, leaders of the world’s leading economies said on Monday that the Paris agreement on climate change should be “fair, balanced, ambitious, durable and dynamic”.

They also underscored their “commitment to reaching an ambitious agreement in Paris that reflects the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances”.

Arvind Panagariya, the PM’s Sherpa at G-20 summit, admitted that the climate change was one issue which “held us up” and said they have been negotiating through the night for the past few days. While the communique was almost ready, he said, the issue of climate change was still being negotiated as some leaders wanted to “reopen” some of the issues. “We negotiated till 4 am, then again went back at 10 am,” Pangariya said.

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Officials said the paragraph was the “most balanced outcome of a hard-fought negotiation” by developed and developing countries.

The joint communique released at the conclusion of the two-day summit said, “We recognize that 2015 is a critical year that requires effective, strong and collective action on climate change and its effects. We reaffirm the below 2 degree Celsius goal as stated in the Lima Call for Action. We affirm our determination to adopt a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that is applicable to all parties”.

“We affirm that the Paris agreement should be fair, balanced, ambitious, durable and dynamic,” it said, reaffirming that UNFCCC is the primary international intergovernmental body for negotiating climate change.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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