India 'Most Important But Difficult Country' in Climate Change Talks, Says Policy Expert

Climate change experts have pinned high hopes on US President Barack Obama's visit to India, hoping that the two countries may clinch a crucial deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"China has laid out a plan and we saw that last November. China and the US had this bilateral agreement. The last major economy or emerging power in this area is India and I don't know if we are going to get that agreement next week but it will happen sometime soon," leading climate change expert David G Victor told NDTV in an interview at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.
 

He said India is the most important but diplomatically most difficult country in climate change talks. "But if India pushes through the climate deal, it will give a lot of boost to climate change talks with other emerging economies like Brazil going into this conference later this year in Paris."

Almost 200 governments will meet in Paris in late 2015 to try to agree a deal to limit global warming to avert floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels blamed on rising emissions of greenhouse gases.

Mr Victor said that America could follow the same model as it did with China where some announcements were made on a few parts of the climate change agenda before the big announcement last November. "The key in the talks is the ozone depleting substances - the HFCs (hydrochlorofloro carbons). They are big causes of climate change. There are easy ways to make reductions in them and India frankly has been diplomatically one of the most difficult countries in those negotiations," Victor said.

Mr Victor also said that a new diplomacy of climate change is evolving where there will be "tailor-made agreements" for each country, the way it's happened for China. "This is going to happen between US and India, between US and EU," he said.

During President Obama's visit, the United States and India are expected to announce efforts to work together to combat climate change ahead of key talks in Paris. India, the world's third largest carbon emitter, is reluctant to follow the United States and China in committing to a peak year for emissions on the grounds it needs economic growth to alleviate poverty. Instead, India is likely to highlight its plans for a rapid expansion of renewable energy, for which it needs US investment and technology, and improving energy efficiency.