The linked New York Times article discusses the pivotal role that India will play in determining the strength, or weakness, of the pending CoP21 Paris Pact. The article indicates that as the US Congress has declined to help pay for the transition of developing countries from fossil fuels to green renewables Obama and Hollande have been forced to turn to the private sector (like Bill Gates) to try to bridge the remaining gap between developed and developing countries relative contributions to the CoP21 Paris Pact:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/01/world/asia/narendra-modi-could-make-or-break-obamas-climate-legacy.html?_r=0Extract: "India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas polluter, has emerged as a pivotal player in shaping the outcome of a deal on which Mr. Obama hopes to build his legacy — or whether a deal emerges at all. So far, Indian negotiators have publicly staked out an uncompromising position.
India embodies a critical tension that will play out in Paris between developed nations like the United States, which are calling for universal emissions cuts, and developing nations like India, which say they deserve to increase fossil fuel use as their economies grow or else receive billions of dollars to make the transition to cleaner energy.
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India’s annual per capita carbon dioxide emissions are 1.7 tons, compared with 16.6 tons per person in the United States and 7.4 tons per person in China.
During the climate change talks, India is expected to challenge the United States on three counts: to speed up emissions reductions by wealthy countries to compensate for emissions growth in poor countries, to pay more to poor countries to assist in mitigation plans, and to provide clean-energy technology to poor countries.
Ashley Tellis, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Mr. Obama had “tried hard” to persuade Mr. Modi to shift India off those more hard-line negotiating positions ahead of the climate talks, “but failed.”
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In a move that appeared explicitly intended to win India’s cooperation in Paris, Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist, joined the Obama administration to create what is being called the largest public-private coalition for funding renewable energy. The coalition has the cooperation of 20 countries, including the United States and India, which have pledged to double their funding of renewable energy research, and it will feature a renewable energy research fund paid for by 28 billionaire philanthropists, including two prominent Indian businessmen.
The plans for the fund came together after the French president, François Hollande, who is deeply invested in the success of the Paris talks, invited Mr. Gates and Mr. Modi to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. As Mr. Obama has tried to find ways to bring Mr. Modi into a deal, his officials have worked closely with Mr. Gates.
Mr. Hollande in the meantime worked with Mr. Modi on another initiative: a 121-nation solar energy alliance, which Mr. Modi unveiled Monday in the conference’s Indian pavilion.
Some analysts caution against overreacting to India’s negotiating postures — or, for that matter, its projections for expansion in its coal sector, which is dogged by corruption and inefficiency."