By joining the Paris climate agreement, India has taken a bold and decisive step in combating climate change. India’s ratification provides indispensable political momentum for securing entry into force of the Paris Agreement this year, sending an enduring and irreversible market signal that low-carbon development is 21st century development, which will yield tremendous benefits not only for producers and consumers in India, but also for those around the world. India ratified the Paris Agreement on Climate Change by depositing the Instrument of Ratification with the United Nations on Sunday, the 147th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. A special event was organised to mark the occasion, also observed as the International Day of Nonviolence, at the UN Headquarters. India is the 62nd country to ratify the agreement. The agreement will enter into force one month after 55 countries that account for 55 per cent of global emissions ratify the agreement. Living through an age of triumphant industrial capitalism, Mahatma Gandhi had warned of the dangers posed by the unbridled exploitation of natural resources. Gandhi foresaw the pivotal role environment would occupy in development debates decades later. A very early environmentalist Gandhi encapsulated the whole idea of sustainable development more than seven decades ago saying, “The earth, the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our fore fathers but on loan from our children. So we have to handover to them at least as it was handed over to us.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement last month on India’s decision to ratify the agreement was a sudden turnaround from its earlier position that the domestic process was incomplete. To meet the national commitment made under the agreement, India has to implement an array of standards in its energy production and emission monitoring. India had also linked the ratification of the treaty to its admission to the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
