Ahead of crucial UN meetings on global warming in Peru and later in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reconstituted a high-level advisory group on climate change — Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change — that last met around four years ago.

The PM increased the band and width of the important panel with inclusion of senior ministers and senior-most negotiators that India has on climate change.

While the government has retained TERI chairperson RK Pachauri, economist Nitin Desai and retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Dasgupta (easily the senior-most international negotiator that India has) as the NGO representatives on the 18-member panel, it has dropped Centre for Science and Environment head Sunita Narain and noted industrialist Ratan Tata.

Both Tata and Narain were members of the group formed by the UPA government in 2007. Though a lot, largely political, is being read into the development, experts believe the reconstitution is a more newsworthy move than perhaps the dropping of Narain and Tata.

One, the revival shows India is serious about the issue of climate change and two, the fact that Pachauri, Desai, Chandrashekhar have been retained and JM Mauskar (lead negotiator for India in the previous Congress-led regime, former special secretary in the ministry and a senior official of the UN climate convention) included means there is “nothing political” behind the move.

Another important point in including these old hands means the new BJP-led NDA government may show consistency with Indian existing stand on the climate change that was maintained by the UPA. The principal of equity for sharing the burden of cutting the greenhouse gas emissions has been the bottom-line of negotiations apart from issues related to developing nations like India and China.

“Senior negotiators of the previous regime have been included. Chandrashekhar is the senior-most negotiator that India has since the times of the Kyoto protocol. Mauskar has served as a senior official in the UN panel during the UPA regime. There is a provision in the notification that the chairman can invite any other minister/ officer/ expert to any meeting of the committee depending upon the context of the meeting and that is what has been done,” says an official.

Officials say the PM may have dropped Narain — one of the strongest voices that India has on climate change — but he has included old hands which means the NDA is consistent with the position taken by previous regime led by the Congress in international forums. “He has brought on board many old timers increasing the knowledge and width of the panel,” an official says.

Ajay Mathur is the Director of the green climate fund and a negotiator in green technology in climate change discussions. The continuation of Pachuri means the government has not purged civil society out of the panel therefore the reconstitution cannot be read as a signal of any “change in India’s position,” officials argue.

Pachauri, chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, had come under attack from various quarters over the IPCC’s 2007 report that said the glaciers in the Himalayas will disappear by 2035 due to global warming. He called the mistake was “unfortunate”.

Headed by Modi, the re-constituted council is tasked with evolving a coordinate national action for assessment, adaptation and mitigation of climate change at national level.

There is also an increase in the ministerial strength with induction of Urban Development Minister and Coal Minister as members. But the presence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh and Coal Minister Piyush Goel are the members of the council. Nripendra Misra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, is the member convenor of the panel.