Analysis of Developmental Agenda: India’s National interests in Climate Change Regime

Climate change is an immense threat to the existence of life on the Earth. The issue of climate change is a multi dimensional issue and hence, required to be addressed in larger context of national interests. According to the IPCC 5th assessment report (AR5) released in 2014, the world is just left with 1000 Gt of carbon space by 2030 to keep the rise in average global temperature less than 20C to avert the adverse effects of climate change. To save the earth, under the ‘Paris Agreement', the world has agreed for drastic reduction in GHG emissions beyond the year2020. Despite the global consensus to reduce GHG emission, it is still a contentious issue that how to decide the degree of responsibility and how to share the burden of mitigation actions. The reduction in GHG emission essentially, involves switching the economy on low carbon path. Moving apart from traditional energy sources is expensive and thus, adversely affect the developmental prospects of a country. India's largest population still deprived of basic human needs and development is inevitable to eradicate their poverty. For development, energy is a primary essential and thus, energy, economic development and Human development are interlinked.The present paper is an attempt to explore this relationship in context of Indian scenario. The present paper also explored the logic behind India's denial to take on binding emission reduction targets under the climate change regime.