Continued coal development is an essential reserve in India`s prospects. The 1.5 degree Celsius Paris agreement means India must exit coal in the energy sector by 2040. In 2018, the National Electricity Plan (NEP) included more than 90 GW of planned coal-fired power plants, which would unnecessarily increase emissions and risk becoming failed assets. Abandoning these plans is more than feasible if recent developments are seen as a 50% reduction in the cost of solar electricity in just two years and several supply plans for the construction of coal-fired power plants. The UNEP report stresses the need for even more urgent action to improve measures to curb the fight against climate change. If global greenhouse gas emissions do not fall by 7.6% per year between 2020 and 2030, the world will not be on track to meet the 1.50C temperature target set by the Paris Agreement. “The Indian delegation has always been much smaller than the requirement, or even compared to delegations from other similar countries. Letters for the climate conferences were jointly prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEA). In the political negotiations, MEA officials with MoEFCC and other departments had this role at the head of the substantive negotiations, but it was a team effort. While the Prime Minister`s office has always been buzzing about the importance of climate change negotiations, it was time for the delegation to be completed; After 2014, it was the PM who, in my opinion, played a more direct role” (Author interview with former Indian negotiator – Senior Civil Servant, e-mail, April 30, 2017). Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that India would ratify the agreement on October 2, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of Britain`s struggle for independence. The team analyzed the 184 voluntary commitments made by countries under the Paris Agreement and estimated that nearly 75% of the overall climate commitments under the agreement are “insufficient to slow climate change,” and some of the world`s largest emitters, such as the United States, China and India, will continue to increase their emissions. Changes in India`s climate policy have not been smooth.

Senior members of India`s negotiating team have publicly failed with the minister on the concessions deemed inexplicable in their time, which have cancelled years of India`s indecisive negotiating strategy (Vihma 2011); Thaker – Leiserowitz 2014). Ramesh was also heavily criticized in domestic policy debates by the main opposition party for easing India`s conservative role in climate change negotiations and insisted that the Copenhagen agreement would not undermine India`s sovereignty (Parsai 2009). The United States and China, which together account for 40% of global CO2 emissions, both formally acceded to the Paris Global Climate Agreement earlier this month. The Paris Agreement is the world`s first comprehensive climate agreement. The extent to which the alleged 21% reduction between 2005 and 2014 is due to concerted action on climate change is unclear. By comparison, in its own NDC, China claimed to have reduced the CO2 emission intensity of its GDP by 33.8% over the same period. IANS, 2017. Sushma Swaraj: India will work beyond the Paris Agreement: Sushma Swaraj.