India, 170 nations sign historic Paris climate pact at UN

The signing is the first step towards ensuring that the Paris agreement comes into force as soon as possible 

 India on Friday signed the historic Paris climate agreement along with more than 170 nations, marking a significant step that has brought together developing and developed nations for beginning work on cutting down greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar signed the agreement in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly hall at a high-level ceremony hosted by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
The ceremony was attended by heads of government, ministers, corporate leaders and artists.
“This is a moment in history. Today you are signing a new covenant with the future,” Ban said. “We are in a race against time.”
The opening ceremony included music from students of New York’s Julliard School and a short video bringing the “gavel moment” from Paris to the signature ceremony.
With 171 nations, the signing ceremony for the climate agreement set the record for the most countries to sign an international agreement in one day, previously set in 1982 when 119 countries signed the Law of the Sea Convention.
The signing is the first step towards ensuring that the agreement comes into force as soon as possible. After the signing, countries must take the further national (or domestic) step of accepting or ratifying the agreement.
The agreement can enter into force 30 days after at least 55 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, accounting for at least 55% of global emissions, ratify the agreement.
India has maintained that the burden of fighting climate change cannot be put on the shoulders of the poor after decades of industrial development by the rich nations. It has announced plans to quadruple its renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatt (GW) by 2022 as part of the government’s plan to supply electricity to every household.
India seeks to add 100GW of photovoltaic capacity, 60GW of wind power, 10GW of biomass and five gigawatts of hydro projects.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in an address to a think tank earlier this week, said notwithstanding its development need, India is completely committed to protecting the climate.
“The level of development we have reached is far, still the hard reality is we have a lot of distance to cover. We need more housing, power, toilets, roads and factories. Therefore our requirements of fuel is certainly going to increase. Notwithstanding that our own standards of protecting the environment are very rigid,” Jaitley said.
“There is a method in each one of the steps we are taking such as taxing oil, cess on coal and emphasis on alternative renewable energy,” he said. “We are conscious of our responsibilities.