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India Ratifies The Paris Climate Change Agreement (npr.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the world's-second-largest-population dept.

"India just ratified the Paris climate deal -- bringing it extremely close to taking effect," reports the Washington Post, calling India the world's fourth-largest producer of greenhouse gas. An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes NPR's update on the Paris agreement: It will not become binding until it's ratified by 55 countries that contribute a total of at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The 55-country requirement has already been fulfilled -- India is No. 62 -- but...the current signatories account for about 52 percent of global greenhouse emissions, according to a statement released by the U.N. on Sunday.

India currently produces about 4.5 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions [and] has set a goal of producing 40 percent of its electricity with non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. India also promised to plant or preserve enough tree cover to act as a sink for at least 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, and has called on the U.S. and other fully developed countries to share technologies that help decrease emissions.

15 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Canada, eh? by ptaff · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Canada (1.95% of the percent of global greenhouse emissions) is supposed to ratify the agreement later this week. With the liberals having the majority of seats, this should easily pass. Not enough to bring it to 55%, though.

    1. Re:Canada, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The EU has agreed to ratify it as well, so we'll get above 55% easily.

  2. India is number 4? by darthsilun · · Score: 2

    A little earlier we were told that the US is no. 4 on the list of polluters (sic) in the post[1] on reservoirs as a source of greenhouse gases.

    So which is it?

    [1] https://news.slashdot.org/stor...

    1. Re:India is number 4? by ptaff · · Score: 3, Informative

      we were told that the US is no. 4 on the list of polluters

      USA would be second, with 17.89% while India shows 4.10%, according to a UN climate change document referenced in the above Wikipedia link.

    2. Re: India is number 4? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's both. Prosperity means that time becomes more valuable than money, and money can buy machinery to do work for you. Imagine you cannot afford that SUV and have to go by bus. Yes, that takes way more hours and is horribly inconvenient, but it also means a lower emission footprint. Of course nobody would willingly accept that hardship for no good reason, so the only "good enough" reason would probably be that you can't afford your own car.

      Same goes for a lot of other things. Air condition being one, clothes dryer another. We use a lot of machines that increase our quality of life that contribute to pollution, directly or indirectly.

      --
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    3. Re:India is number 4? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That shift is already happening, on both ends. Look at the per capita emissions of each country. In the US, Europe (including Eastern Europe), emissions have been dropping steadily since the 90s and are still dropping. Those in India and China are seeing a sharp increase, though they are still well below US levels. In the 90s, a US citizen produced almost 25x the amount of CO2 of someone from India. Today, it's "only" 9x. China emits more CO2 per capita than the EU average (Source, see page 31).

      The lesson here is that it appears that we can actually reduce our emissions significantly without radical changes to our lifestyle, and that developing nations can have a level of prosperity similar to ours without necessarily breaking the planet. Not that we should sit back and relax, quite the contrary, but we shouldn't let ourselves be scared into "radical" solutions either.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re:India is number 4? by fsagx · · Score: 2

      How much of the drop in emissions of the West can be attributed to shifts of heavy industry to China?

    5. Re: India is number 4? by ljw1004 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Steel

  3. Meaningless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's years to late and even if it where ratified by the required number of countries there is no mechanism to force compliance and no targets from previous treaties have even come close to being met

    Can we just admit we don't care about children and get on with the business of enslaving them and destroying the planet for our own limited comfort without pretense of ethics or morality

  4. Acid rain by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember when "acid rain" was the #1 environmental problem? - No? - Neither does anyone else under 40 because Reagan and Thatcher pushed for (and won) a global cap + trade treaty on sulphur emissions. Besides, if climate treaties don't make a practical difference, why has the coal industry spent the last 30-40yrs doing everything it can to sabotage them?

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  5. Re:Yeah, that'll be why its 400C on Venus by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Informative

    CO2 absords and re-remits IR - which would otherwise escaped from the atmosphere - in a random direction (ie scattering it) therefore heating the atmosphere up. The physics is not up for debate.

  6. Re:Yeah, that'll be why its 400C on Venus by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    CO2 absords and re-remits IR - which would otherwise escaped from the atmosphere - in a random direction (ie scattering it) therefore heating the atmosphere up. The physics is not up for debate.

    As does water vapor, which is why it's a greenhouse gas, which in turn is another reason why rising temperatures are a problem — they lead to more evaporation. Last I heard the prevalent theory was that if you continue long enough down that road you get enough weather to flip you over into an ice age, but nobody is really sure since these exact conditions are somewhat unprecedented. There hasn't been this much CO2 since what, the last big extinction?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Re:Alternate Fact by mspohr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    India has more cows than any country in the world.
    http://beef2live.com/story-wor...

    http://qz.com/643433/all-you-w...
    India's cows produce more climate damage that all of its cars and trucks.
    http://content.time.com/time/w...

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  8. Re:Yeah, that'll be why its 400C on Venus by GonzoPhysicist · · Score: 2

    High humidity feeling hotter has very little to do with greenhouse effect. It's because sweat doesn't evaporate well enough to cool you off and because it's easier for condensation to form on cold objects which warms them up faster.

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    horror vacui
  9. U.S. has not actually joined the agreement by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2

    The article says that the U.S. has joined the agreement, but that is not actually true. Obama has not even submitted this agreement to the Senate to START the process of the U.S. joining it. Until the Senate ratifies it, this agreement is not legally binding upon the U.S.. If other countries want to bind themselves to an agreement based on the assumption that all future Presidents and Congresses will honor Obama's word on this treaty, that is up to them. But if they do so, they are being foolish because the reason Obama has not submitted it to the Senate is because he knows the Senate will reject it (just like a previous Senate rejected the Kyoto accords...even without them being submitted that Senate voted 99-0 on a statement opposing the Kyoto Accords).

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison