According to media reports, US and its allies in the global North, as pushing for equal financial contributions from the developing countries, going against the principle of common but differentiated responsibility.
Negotiating its way through the climate talks in Paris, India needs to be careful of not being reactionary, yet be able to give it back in kind and focus on its ambitious renewable energy targets, to counter the spoiler tag coming its way, say experts observing the talks. US Secretary of State, John Kerry's statement prior to Paris, calling negotiating with India a challenge, set the ball rolling on "political posturing on whom to blame", as Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of Council for Energy, Environment and Water told dna, India needed to stay it's course and not rise to the bait.
According to media reports, US and its allies in the global North, as pushing for equal financial contributions from the developing countries, going against the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. This has also thrown a spanner in the making that the developed world meet its pledge of $100 billion to help the developing world by 2020, and could sour this crucial stage in the climate negotiations.
Srinivas Krishnaswamy, founder of Vasudha Foundation, New Delhi, told dna that "industrialised countries, particularly EU and US are pushing for language on decarbonisation goal as part of the long term goal." India, he added, was "resisting that language" as "its stance primarily is that it is in a stage of development, where it requires all sources of energy to secure its energy future."
According to him, and Ghosh, India's trump could be its focus on renewable energy, its ambitious plans to set it up, and establishing itself a natural leader in solar energy with the International Solar Alliance.
"The Prime Minister's speech was a one-two punch," said Ghosh. It put on the table India's large plans for renewables and also joined hands with other countries. Thus it maintained a positive position and couldn't just be seen as a country that wanted to hold on to differentiation.
"If countries want to talk coal, then India should talk coal," Ghosh explained further, as the US consumed more coal today than India will in 2030. The EU used coal in the form of lignite, which was one of the dirtier kinds of coal. India's lignite usage, said Ghosh, was 1/10th that of the EU's.
Ghosh also said that India's renewables target had set it on the correct trajectory. It may not achieve 175GW of renewable energy by 2022, but it would get there in time. Krishnaswamy too, comparing India and China, said that "India has already an ambitious RE target until 2022 and if this is realised, could potentially ramp up its RE targets even further until 2030 and despite the head start that China has had on RE, India could very surpass China in the percentage share of RE in its mix."
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