Ashok Pathak | The TrickyScribe: Positions taken by world powers including the US notwithstanding, Indian PM Narendra Modi assured French President Emmanuel Macron of India’s firm resolve of standing by France and also the controversial Paris Climate Accord and making it a success while concluding his tour to France on Friday. “Twenty first century is all about Infra – India and France, said PM Modi while addressing the PIO community on the last day of his France visit.
“The character of the two countries is shaped by the shared values of ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’. Whether it is terrorism or climate change, we have accepted our collective responsibility to protect the values of democracy from these dangers,” asserted PM Modi.
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Macron and Modi have urged all stakeholders to contribute to the success of Climate Action Summit scheduled to be convened by the United Nations Secretary General on September 23 and to encourage the global efforts towards combating climate change, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told mediapersons on Friday following the bilateral summit Thursday night. Gokhale also highlighted that PM Modi has assured Macron full support to French endeavours in all fields including Climate Change.
Acknowledging the ardent need for multilevel action – local, national, regional and global – France and India urged all stakeholders to contribute to the success of the Climate Action Summit convened by the United Nations Secretary General on September 23 and to encourage the global efforts towards combating climate change, according to the joint statement issued after the Summit.
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“There is a lot of lip service being done in the name of climate change in the world but there seems to be limited action on the same. Together, India and France took the initiative of the International Solar Alliance, today more than 75 countries of the world are actively involved in it working on the ground to restrict climate change,” PM Modi said.
India and France, which are contributing substantially to the process of sustainable development of Africa, have desired to cooperate to implement joint projects in the continent. Discussions are on for tripartite projects, particularly on the issues of solar irrigation and rural development in African countries and on developing skills through vocational training to sustain the development of the solar photovoltaic sector in Chad.
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The Indian and French statesmen reaffirmed their commitment to update their nationally determined contributions in a manner representing a progression beyond the current one and reflecting their highest possible ambition in line with principles of United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement including equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC).
India and France at Thursday’s Summit reaffirmed the importance of fulfilling the commitments under UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement and also urged all developed countries to scale up their contributions to Green Climate Fund in its first replenishment cycle in line with their commitments.
“Taking into consideration the goals of Paris Agreement and the recent findings of Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impact of global warming at 1.5 degree Celsius with reference to pre-industrial levels as well as the IPCC Special Report on climate change and land, India and France, under European Union, will develop by 2020 their long-term strategies for low-GHG emission development, taking into account their Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities, in light of different national circumstances, and reflecting the highest possible level of national ambition, in line with Paris Agreement,” according to the Indo- France Joint Statement.
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Under the framework of the G7 Summit in Biarritz and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit on September 23, France and India will also support new initiatives aimed towards low-GHG development resilient to climate change notably through financial flows alignment with the Paris Agreement objectives and supporting the transition towards lower emissions of high emitting industries. The two countries reaffirmed their joint commitment to accelerate development and deployment of renewable energy.
India and France agreed that oceans play an important role in combating climate change, preserving biodiversity, and development, and, acknowledging the link between environment and security, decided to enlarge the scope of their maritime cooperation to address these issues. For sustainable use of marine resources, India and France will work towards ocean governance, including the Indian Ocean.
In the run-up to the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which will be held from 2nd to 13th September 2019 in New Delhi, and the 25th anniversary of the Convention signed in Paris in June 1994, France and India recalled the urgent necessity of sustainably transforming the use of Mother Earth. They desired to contribute to land restoration measures so as to fight poverty, inequalities and food insecurity on the one hand, and prevent and attenuate climate change and preserve or restore biodiversity.
These measures could be based on the recommendations of IPBES special report on land degradation and restoration and its global assessment on biodiversity, as well as the IPCC special report on climate change and land adopted in Geneva in August 2019.
In this spirit, India and France intended to promote the initiative set up by the G7 Environment Ministers in Metz for the development of sustainable networks for supplying agricultural products to combat deforestation, notably from the environmental viewpoint through recognised certifications.
