Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) — Indian officials advised Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to skip this month’s United Nations
climate summit, telling him the largest such gathering of world
leaders was “not important,” the Economic Times reported.
Modi, who took office in May, was told by environment
ministry officials that he “should not attend” because it
would put pressure on India to announce new steps in tackling
climate change, according to the report, which cited a senior
official it didn’t identify. Government spokesman Frank Noronha
didn’t answer his mobile phone and wasn’t available when called
at his office for comment.
India, the world’s third-biggest emitter, has no key
announcements to make on the issue, according to the report.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott are also set to miss the summit, which is being held to
create momentum among world leaders to agree on a new global
climate pact by the end of next year.
More than 120 heads of state, including from the U.S.,
Japan and the U.K., will attend the Sept. 23 meeting, making it
the biggest climate-change gathering ever, the UN said
yesterday.
While not intended as a negotiating session, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has told nations to come with “bold ideas”
toward achieving a new treaty to cut greenhouse gases by
December 2015. The previous pact, known as the Kyoto Protocol,
ended in 2012.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Natalie Obiko Pearson in New Delhi at
npearson7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Abhay Singh, Andrew Hobbs