India will attempt to keep its climate commitments but will not act at the behest or under pressure from developed countries, Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday, underscoring the country’s prerogative to balance development goals with obligations on climate change.
Javadekar was speaking at an event organised at the Embassy of France to mark French minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s visit to India. He reiterated that India will “over achieve” its commitments, a government spokesperson later said in a clarification to his remarks.
Le Drian, in his address, said countries must stop building new coal-based power plants and progressively move towards achieving carbon neutrality. Javadekar, who spoke after Le Drian’s address, offered some context. “Yes, we are suffering. We are seeing higher temperatures, unusual rain, hurricanes, frequency of such abnormal events has increased.”
But, he added, it should not be forgotten that this is not a new phenomenon. “For 150 years, this has been happening because carbon emissions remain in the atmosphere for more than 150 years, so what we are suffering today was caused 150 years ago. The countries [of] EU [European Union], US and in the last 30 to 40 years China, they emitted and therefore the world is suffering, India is suffering,” he said
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