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Newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted 24 times within two hours as news, on 1 June, came from across the Atlantic. US President Trump declared that he has broken away from the Paris Climate Agreement. That "breaking news" sent frenzied tremors across the globe. But Macron was "calme, prudent et reflechi" as they say in French – calm, careful and thoughtful.
French presidents are, by tradition, not known to express in public in English, but many of Macron's tweets were in good English. Finally, later that night, thinking that his tweets were not good enough to express himself, he went on French national TV to address the Americans in English. It was streamed alive from his office in Elysee Palace for about three minutes. He consoled Americans, which was thought to be unprecedented in French presidential history.
Then Macron went on to repeat his earlier invitation to Americans, made in video message three weeks back. He stated:
Reminiscent of the speeches made during World War II by American presidents to suffering nations and resistance fighters of France, Macron's message of climate solidarity was sneaky and cheeky at the same time.
Meanwhile, there was no response from former President Barack Obama's camp on charges by Trump-platoons that Obama's ratification of Paris Climate Agreement was "unconstitutional".
This apart, the reasons highlighted by President Trump in rejecting the tirelessly-negotiated and hard-fought international treaty that was otherwise on its death bed, ready for cremation, were: Loss of American jobs, burden on American taxpayers and loss of American sovereignty. In short: The Paris Climate Agreement was not an American treaty.
All these reasons clearly defy the basic tenets of international environmental negotiations. These fundamentals of collective action were captured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech to United Nations General Assembly on 25 September, 2015, when he categorically stated in reference to climate change:
Collective rise against an impending global catastrophe like climate change explicitly puts national self-interest second. Interestingly, the Trump regime is not the first American leadership to disregard international treaties since 1945. And the climate agreement is not the only accord that US has turned its back on.
American hypocrisy, whether of Democrats or Republicans, has been starkly evident when some of its own national agreements, when cast in an international treaty, have been refused signatures by Washington. The list of such treaties is long and American commitment to a true global alliance has been in question before.
According to him, the US is losing its democratic values, competitive edge and international stewardship. Here lies the unprecedented opportunity for India to fill that void and take on much-needed leadership in its true sense.
India stands apart with no territorial claims to expand its national interest. It is on the right track to develop and implement internationally-inclusive policies to tackle climate change.
Now is the time to seize the opportunity to seal the abyss created by Trump. The Macron-Modi summit in France is an opportunity to demonstrate "Planet First". Both countries, two years back, launched the International Solar Alliance consisting of those countries that get sun-light on a majority of the days in the year.
The Modi-Macron summit could declare that “There is no Plan B for the Paris Climate Agreement, which cannot be renegotiated, because there is no Planet B for the Earth's citizens”.
(Rajendra Shende is Chairman TERRE Policy Centre, an IIT alumnus and former Director, UNEP. He can be contacted at shende.rajendra@gmail.com. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same. This article was published in an arrangement with IANS.)
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