Elected representatives and leaders of 150 nations of the world, and 40,000 delegates from 195 countries are currently attending the Conference of Parties (COP) summit in Paris to deliberate upon global interventions to tackle climate change. CPI(ML) demands that all negotiations at the COP summit should be based on the principled and democratic idea that every individual citizen anywhere in the world has an equal right to the environment and global resources. Over the years, the US and other ‘developed’ nations tried their level best to escape their own culpability and responsibility in this crisis. They have used climate change negotiations as platforms to bully poorer nations, and to undermine precisely this fundamental and democratic principle. There is an absolute urgent need that the COP summit at Paris should enforce legally binding emission reductions on those countries that have historically been responsible for creating the current climate crisis, and also force these countries to fund emission reductions across the world. Negotiations and legally binding emission reductions should be based on per capita emissions, and not on total emissions of each country.
At these crucial climate change talks, the Indian government has to ensure that it stands by democratic principles of global equity, that it resists US and EU bullying, and that it forges strong ties with poor nations against the habitual bullying of the developed nations. There are unfortunately indications that the Modi government will not do so. If the government capitulates to the undemocratic demands of the US and the EU, it will indeed be betraying not just common Indians and India’s sovereignty, but also the rights of the poor and the underprivileged across the world.
CPI(ML) also strongly condemns the brutal crackdown by the Paris police on thousands of protestors who are demanding environmental justice at the COP summit. The widespread dissent and protest is a telling signal that people across the world want their representatives to act, and act quickly, rather than serve the agenda of big business and corporate greed.
