Strengthening India’s Position in Climate Change Negotiations

We thank Navroz K Dubash and Radhika Khosla for their comments on our article “Paris Agreement: Differentiation without Historical Responsibility?” (EPW, 9 April 2016). Their comments give us an opportunity to clarify some issues. We answer three main issues raised by Dubash and Khosla in “Recovering Key Strategic Concepts in India’s Climate Policy” (EPW, 11 June 2016). They feel that (i) our arguments on historical responsibility undermine the Paris Agreement; (ii) our argument that India needs to bring the global environment’s sink capacity into the discussion weakens its negotiating position; and that (iii) including co-benefits will strengthen India’s position.

We state that the Paris Agreement with all its flaws is better than no agreement. It pushes forward the concept of each country committing to its own Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) towards reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), which could be a game changer if pursued seriously by all countries.