India chooses 2 October for ratifying Paris climate deal
26 Sep 2016
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a surprise announcement that India will be ratifying the Paris climate deal on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2 October.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday declared that India would ratify the Paris climate-change deal on October 2, overriding warnings against any haste from within his government in order to hand a farewell gift to outgoing US President Barack Obama.
Modi's announcement at the BJP national council meeting in Kozhikode follows ratification of the climate deal by the top two polluters – United States and China – last month.
Addressing delegates at the end of BJP's national council meeting, Modi said, ''On Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, India will ratify the decisions reached at the Conference of Parties (CoP) in Paris.''
The climate pact deal is in the true spirit of the founding fathers of his party and its sister organization, the Rashtryia Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and therefore Modi decided to make this announcement to coincide an announcement on the centenary celebrations of RSS ideologue and Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) president Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
''The world is today worried about climate change, global warming, natural disasters. Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay had understood the need for striking the fine balance between human development and the need to preserve natural resources.
''He had stressed on the need to be vigilant about the exploitation of natural resources. Human race has only now realised the disastrous impact of our material development on the nature,'' Modi said.
''The world is now talking about how to stop global warming; to prevent the temperature of the earth rising another two degrees. We were guided by Deen Dayal Upadhyay and we know what it could mean for coastal cities and countries… What it could mean for Kerala. We need to play a part. An agreement has been reached in Paris but a final step still needs to be taken - the CoP agreement has to be ratified,'' the PM said.
''This agreement will be ratified only when 55 countries sign it. On October 2, we will ratify it. Mahatma Gandhi's life perhaps left the least carbon footprint on earth. We follow his ideals and India will play its part in ratifying the Paris agreement,'' said the PM.