"Now, the time has come to ratify the COP21 protocol [the Paris Agreement signed last year at the UN Climate Change Conference]. India will do this on [Mahatma] Gandhi's birthday on October 2," Modi said at a meeting with the Bharatiya Janata Party's leadership.
In December 2015, the international community signed the Paris deal aiming to limit global average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by reducing emissions.
The agreement will be open for signature until April 21, 2017. It will enter into force when ratified by at least 55 of the 196 signatory states, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions.
Earlier in September, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that a total of 60 countries representing more than 47.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions had now legally bound themselves to the Paris climate deal. India represents about four percent of global emissions, according to the authorities' assessments.
