BERLIN: India will on Thursday submit its post-2020 'climate action plan' to a UN body in Bonn, specifying what the country will do to fight the threat of climate change. Hours after its submission within the 'informal' deadline of October 1, the country will announce the plan in New Delhi on Friday (October 2) -the declaration coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Aligning its 'Green India' pledge with 'Clean India' mission, the country will seek to remind the world on the occasion of 'Gandhi Jayanti' how the 'father of the nation' had forcefully campaigned for preservation of nature through a sustainable lifestyle and 'mindful consumption' when the issue of climate change and global warming were not even on the horizon.

All 196 member countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are expected to submit their climate action plan by October 1, specifying how they will act in their individual capacity to check global warming and fight menace of climate change under a post-2020 agreement.

In a media statement following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with President Barack Obama in New York on Monday India said, "As far as our INDCs are concerned, Prime Minister said that we had sought permission to declare our INDCs on the 2nd of October. As you all know, the deadline is the 1st of October, but the 2nd of October has a special significance for all of us because it is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a person who was passionately committed to the cause of environment, who was a champion of sustainable development in fact. So, if we declare our INDCs on October 2, then it adds a very significant moral dimension as well to our commitment."

The 'Climate Action Plan' of individual country is called the 'Intended Nationally Determined Contribution' (INDC) in climate change negotiation parlance.

India's INDC is expected to focus on reducing carbon intensity (carbon emission per unit of GDP) through efficient use of energy, a huge renewable energy drive (focusing on solar, wind and bio-mass), a massive afforestation drive by unlocking a fund of over Rs 38,000 crore for this purpose, development of efficient public transport system across the country and a range of adaptation measures in various fields including agriculture, water resources and waste management.

India in its INDC will also give a detailed account of its efforts under various existing climate change action plan missions to voluntarily fulfill its pre-2020 commitment to fight climate change during the period when such actions are mandatory only for rich industrialized nations --historical polluters like the US, Japan, Australia and European Union (EU) countries.

In all, 125 countries, including the world's top three polluters (China, US and EU), have so far submitted their respective INDCs to the UNFCCC. Since October 1 is an 'informal' deadline, many countries will submit it beyond the deadline in the next couple of weeks.

These INDCs, comprising mitigation (emission cut promises) and adaptation measures, will form the basis of climate negotiations in Paris during 'conference of parties' (COP21) in November-December.

The world is expected to come out with a global climate deal after the negotiations (COP21) in Paris in December, determining what these 196 countries will do in their respective individual capacities post-2020 to save the world from disastrous consequences of climate change.

India is the fourth largest GHG emitter at present after China, US and EU, but it ranks 120th in terms of per-capita emission. India's per-capita emission is significantly lower in comparison to China, US and the EU nations.

India will not announce its peaking (peak emission) year, unlike China, in its 'climate action plan'. Instead of specifying any timeline to cap its emission of greenhouse gases, the country will, rather, focus more comprehensively on all five key elements which are identified as vital components of global efforts to fight adverse impacts of climate change.

The five elements which will be reflected in India's `climate action plan' are mitigation (emission cut), adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building.