The Paris Climate Change Agreement, China and India

This paper assesses how the Paris Agreement on climate change affects China and India. Taking a twail (third-world approaches to international law) approach, it argues that patterns of exploitation are repeated in different fields. The unfccc required developed countries to reduce their emissions before developing countries would be required to do so. While some developed countries are keeping to their side of the bargain, others are failing to do so. Nevertheless, China and India have accepted an agreement with targets for all countries which requires considerable sacrifices in the energy field but possible gains in the water field. While both countries have agreed to reduce the rate of growth of their emissions, they have high expectations of climate finance, which are unlikely to be fulfilled. Their commitments require major changes to national policy, scarcely the sort of tinkering that the no-regrets policy in India has
achieved.