India to meet UN climate deadline

India is set to submit its plans to combat climate change, including measures to cut carbon emissions and air pollution, in September.

Tuesday was the first informal deadline for “countries that are able to do so” to submit their climate pledges to the United Nations.

All countries have agreed to put forward their plans ahead of the crucial Paris meet in December.

The European Union, the U.S., Switzerland, Norway and Mexico have all shared their plans to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN climate secretariat.

In the build up to the UN climate change negotiations in Lima, Peru in December, Indian officials had said that the country’s climate change plans would not be submitted before June and in February, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said that the pledges would be shared in June.

In recent weeks there had been indications that India would instead push it to August-September.

A senior official said: “There is thinking on those lines that we should take more time to work out the post-2020 plans. Because once we make a commitment, we should be prepared to meet it.”

Experts say that given the government’s focus on manufacturing, demands for urbanisation and ensuring nationwide electricity coverage by 2022, working out India’s post-2020 climate change commitment is a challenging task.

About 350 million people do not have access to electricity India.

Countries can submit their plans up to the end of September and Javadekar has assured that the pledges will be submitted “in time.”

The UNFCCC will publish a synthesis report on November 1 on all submissions made before October 1.