The Paris convention on reducing the effects of climate change by cooling down the planet actually delivered a deal. Unlike Kyoto in 1997 where the US walked out, world leaders were more concerned about climate change and pledged to reduce heating due to green house gasses to less than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels. This is certainly good news for the planet and its over seven billion inhabitants. The notion of historic responsibility, which called on developed nations to shoulder a larger responsibility because their development was fueled by dirty coal, was replaced by the concept of differentiated responsibility, which makes the developed nations bring down emission levels while developing nations must improve mitigation efforts. The deal commits developed nations to contribute to a $100 billion fund which will be used to help developing nations adapt to the changes brought upon by the Paris protocol. All nations will have to submit progress charts once every five years while the carbon credit system remains in place. For India, which is leading a shift to solar energy, there are many takeaways, but the one sore point pertains to the use of coal. The deal does not prevent India from using coal, but lays emphasis on pursuing pathways that lead to greener processes. This could be misused by the developed world and India needs to be careful about where it gets its GWs from.
