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Climate change is a challenge which all citizens and countries must be ready to embrace. That said India’s current position as a developing country along with its growing influence in the realm of international relations has placed a unique dilemma for the Indian policy makers with respect to climate change. Although India’s per-capita emission is low when compared to those of developed nations, India is ranked fourth in terms of absolute global emissions. On the other hand, many would agree that in the midst of the global financial crisis of 2007-08 India’s economic growth has been unprecedented. Perhaps the economic growth has been at the cost of abandoning policies
aimed at curbing climate change.
By Srinjoy Sarkar
The next obvious question is what are India’s international obligations towards the global effort to reverse climate change? India has ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which does not establish any limits on the emission by each member party. The UNFCCC does prescribe a mechanism for establishing additional legally binding agreements aimed at curbing climate change. It is the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC that legally binds member states to reduce the emission of green house gasses (GHG). Not surprisingly, India is a Member State that is not legally obligated by any limits on the emission of GHG.
The foregoing legal obligations of India (or absence of obligations) under the UNFCCC and its ancillary Kyoto Protocol are a clear indication of India’s policy regarding the balance of responsibility towards containing climate change. In the past during the Rio Summit and the Kyoto Protocol India has argued on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities towards climate change. India reasoned that since it experienced industrialisation at a later stage, the historical responsibility to address the issue of climate change rests first with the developed Member States. In other words the doctrine recognises the historical differences in the contribution towards environment problems by developed countries and also the difference in the economic and technical capacity.
International Obligations
India’s Obligation Towards Climate Change