Articles by Mukul Sanwal

Should India ratify the Paris Agreement when the United States does not consider it a treaty with legally binding commitments and the executive agreement can be easily reversed, as happened with the Kyoto Protocol? And, should India now take a strategic perspective to reframe international cooperation and focus on the carbon budget to allow for the convergence of standards of living?

The promise of inclusive and sustainable development can only be achieved if key policy decisions are rethought with clear priorities – on urbanisation and economic growth – with the transformations kept within ecological limits. A discussion on Ramaswamy R Iyer’s article “Environment and Development: Some Thoughts for the New Government” (EPW, 21 June 2014).

The various mechanisms evolved through global negotiations to deal with shared environmental problems, such as climate change, fall short because they are not located within a larger debate on dealing with human well-being and instead focus only on limiting damage. The United Nations is best placed to support a common understanding on patterns of resource use that are in principle common for all by generating strategic knowledge, also leading to deepening coherence of the global agenda.

The Hokkaido communique on climate change of the Group of Eight countries does not lay down targets for emissions reductions in the developed countries. Yet the G-8 asks developing countries to take more meaningful mitigation actions. How does India's new national action plan propose to deal with climate change and how is it different from the approach being suggested by the G-8?