“Leaders expressed their resolve to finalize a durable, meaningful agreement in Paris that applies to all countries”, Ban told reporters following a high-level working lunch held on the margins of the UN Sustainable Development Summit, which opened in New York on Friday and wrapped up later Sunday.
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Ram Madhav, National General Secretary of BJP, confirmed meeting the United States official upon the latter’s visit in the first week of September to Delhi. “The Prime Minister has desired that India’s efforts in dealing with climate change and other green initiatives should be highlighted and showcased in the run-up to the CoP”, said a senior government official.
Other sources in the know confirmed to Business Standard that the meetings in Delhi were to be followed up with talks in Washington between Indian ministers and officials with officials from the USA during the Prime Minister’s trip.
The conference, hosted by the Jamaica Rural Economy and Ecosystems Adapting to Climate Change (Ja REEACH) project, was staged in collaboration with the Ministries of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change; Education; and Youth and Culture.
Numerous current world crises could have been avoided if nations had invested in their citizens and if wealthy nations had been better partners in assisting them, the USA president said.
“Through the implementation of our Agenda for Transformation developed by the National Development Planning Commission, we aim to diversify production and exports, be more competitive on global markets, increase productivity of all resource inputs and upgrade technologies in order to make the much anticipated leap out of poverty” he noted. They also did not reveal how far the talks on the agreement had progressed over the past three weeks since the U.S. official’s visit. “That’s why it is so important that we secure an ambitious, global deal in Paris later this year that keeps our goal of limiting global warming by 2050 to two degrees within reach”, he said.
However a major sticking point for negotiations in Paris centres on where that money will come from.
“By including climate change throughout the new deal, climate action becomes a driving force behind future development”, said Samantha Smith, leader of WWF International’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative. Our strategy document Partnership for Change explains how we set about this task. “There are concerns such as historical responsibility and technology transfer that have to be addressed”, he added. Language from the joint statement also found its way in to the formal United Nations negotiating text in the Lima talks last year-end.
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Obama said “our most basic bond – our common humanity – compels us to act”, and that despite the difficulties ahead, “we understand this is something that we must commit ourselves to”.
