The Cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval to ratify the second commitment period of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol - extending from 2013 to 2020 — for checking the emission of Green House Gases. The second phase was adopted in 2012, with 65 countries having ratified the Second Commitment Period so far.
“In view of the critical role played by India in securing international consensus on climate change issues, this decision further underlines the country’s leadership in the comity of nations committed to global cause of environmental protection and climate justice,” said an Environment Ministry statement after the Cabinet meeting.
The Kyoto protocol recognized that developed countries are principally responsible for the current top levels of Greenhouse Gas (GHGs) and that the protocol places commitments on developed nations to undertake mitigation targets and to provide financial resources and transfer of technology to the developing nations.
India’s ratification is expected to encourage other developing countries also to follow suit.
Further, it will give more push to the implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects which are among the highlights of KP’s second commitment period. These projects are also expected to attract new investments in the country as well, said the sources.
The Paris Agreement that comes into existence post-2020 allows every country to decide on its course of action independently.