Washington: The meeting of US President Barack Obama with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the first day of the Paris climate change summit, on 30 November, is expected to give an impetus to the conference—the three countries account for 46% of the global emission of greenhouse gas (GHG).
According to a report by Reuters, White House officials announced on Tuesday that Obama would meet with the two leaders on 30 November to “send a strong message to the world about their strong commitment to climate change”.
“These two countries are two of our most important partners in dealing with global climate change,” said Paul Bodnar, the White House National Security Council’s senior director for energy and climate change.
He clarified that the meeting is not meant to yield any announcements but to consult on issues central to the negotiations.
Last year, the US and China signed a landmark emissions deal. The US promised to cut its emissions by over a fourth by 2025 and China said its carbon emissions would peak by 2030 and it would start cutting them after that. By then, China said, at least 20% of its energy would come from non-fossil fuel sources.
India has refused to consider entering into any such deal with the US or any other country.
China is responsible for 25.36%, US 14.4% and India 6.96% of GHG emissions. India’s main demands from the Paris summit are transfer of technology and finance from the developed world to tackle climate change.
Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said that the meeting of the three countries was bound to be interesting because they have very different stands on climate change.
“It will be interesting to see how much each will compromise on their respective stand to reach an agreement,” he added.
More than 190 countries are expected to take part in the Conference of Parties (CoP)-21 under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris that starts on 30 November to try and agree on a new global climate regime.
French President François Hollande invited all heads of state and government to CoP’s opening, aiming to generate political momentum ahead of the negotiations, which will first take place first at a technical level and then at a ministerial level. Till 24 November, 147 heads of state and government had confirmed their participation at the inauguration.
This level of participation makes CoP-21 one of the largest diplomatic conferences ever organized.
