The outcome of the upcoming UN climate summit in Poland should be "balanced and inclusive", Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said.
The Minister also asserted that India expects the conference to frame guidelines, which are pragmatic and give due consideration to the challenges and priorities of developing nations.
The 24th meeting of Conference of Parties (COP-24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held at Katowice, Poland from December 2-14.
COP-24 is very significant as it is expected to finalise guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
"India expects that COP-24 should give due consideration to challenges of developing countries inter alia different starting points as compared to developed countries, their vulnerabilities, development priorities like eradication of poverty, food security, energy access, providing health infrastructure etc," the minister said.
"COP-24 should give equal focus to all agenda items, and its outcome should be balanced, inclusive, comprehensive and consistent with the principles and provisions of the convention and its Paris Agreement," he added.
India strongly supports the objective of the Paris Agreement to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"India would like to demonstrate the same spirit of commitment and leadership shown in the past during the COP-24. India's expectation from COP-24 is that the decisions should be in consonance with the principles of UNFCCC, its Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement including equity, CBDR-RC, and climate justice," an official statement said.
