India to oppose efforts to dilute developed world's responsibilities at Paris Summit

New Delhi, Nov 25: India will strongly contest any attempt by developed countries to dilute their responsibilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, government sources today said while outlining India's key strategies at the upcoming Paris climate summit.

At the same time, India will also strongly "pursue lack of commitment" of developed countries in providing finance and green technology to developing nations to tackle the challenge of climate change and adopt clean energy pathways.

"Downplaying of developed countries' commitments and enhancement of developing countries contributions will be contested while lack of commitment of developed countries on finance and technology will be pursued," a top government source said.

India will also challenge attempts to cite its large economy to preclude it from being eligible for climate finance.

"Attempts to enlarge the contributor base and shrink recipent base for climate finance will be contested," the source pointed out.

India made it clear that the agreement should be based on basic principles of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in which equity, common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) will form the parts of its elements and historical responsibility will also be factored in.

The source said that the focus on mitigation goal by developed countries will also be contested by India. The top source pointed out that there is no "redline" but only "greenlines" for India and another key issue which will come up is vacating carbon space for developing nations.

"There is 3,000 Giga tonnes of carbon space. 2,000 Giga tonnes are already blocked. Therefore the carbon space needs to be vacated for developing nations," the source said.

Although much has been talked about finance, the source pointed out that little has been done. "A new figure of 62 billion dollars is now being talked about but the pledge is only 10 billion dollars.

"However, if one sees actually, only 168 million dollars worth of projects have been sanctioned. There is no actual movement on finance. Therefore, India will be stressing for 100 billion dollars for Green Climate Fund (GCF). Finance will be a real issue of negotiations," the source pointed out.

PTI