Sunita Narain, head of the influential environmental think-tank Centre for Science and Environment, fears that Paris will break down the “firewall” between countries responsible for climate change and the developing world.
In Paris, the very terms of the global climate agreement will change. Instead of requiring countries to cut emission based on their contribution to creating the problem, each country can decide how much it will cut. Furthermore, all countries are required to take action, not just the countries, which are responsible for the bulk of emissions in the atmosphere. In this way, the firewall, which differentiated between the developed world responsible for climate change and the countries, which needed right to development, will be removed. In this way, equity and differentiation will be erased.
The UN has accepted that the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) - actions submitted by all countries to reduce emissions by 2030 - will take the world to at least 2.7°C rise, if not much more. So, the world must also agree to how it will ratchet up the commitments of all countries to cut emissions further.