"Climate Diplomacy" And Two Level Approach In India’s Climate Negotiations

Since the introduction of 1992 UNFCCC negotiations,India framed the climate change problem as one of the allocating rights of the global commons,where India emphasized on climate equity.The key negotiation started during the Kyoto Protocol when India played a crucial role in defending the importance of ‘common but different responsibilities’.India convenes a ‘Green Group’ of 72 countries to bolster the possibility of a legally binding protocol but without any commitment.On the other hand Clean Development Mechanism(CDM)set out in the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 served two objectives-1)to help non-Annex I(developing countries including India and China)in accomplishing sustainable development and in contributing to the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC,which is to prevent dangerous climate change;2)to help Annex I(industrialized countries)in accomplishing consistence with their quantified emission limitations and reduction commitments of greenhouse gas(GHG)emission caps.The main idea was necessary for the transfer of financial resources and technology to seek cooperation on emission and abatement of carbon emission from the developing countries.India was keen to form a coalition group of Brazil,South Africa and China to be known as BASIC just before the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009.Where India for the first time offered voluntary mitigation commitments at Copenhagen climate negotiation and took the initiative to reduce carbon footprint at the domestic level such as-lowering the energy intensity of industrial production,increasing the renewable energy consumption and scaling up afforestation rates with new environmental acts,official missions and establishment of various environmental institutions.India continued to play pro-active in terms of bringing nationally determined emission target,contributing call for 35 percent in Paris Agreement in 2015 and giving importance to solar energy with the formation of International Solar Alliance.The puzzle for us is that neither foreign policy theories nor existing diplomacy theories or IR theories explains clearly the ongoing phenomenon of state changing choice/behavior in the international negotiations.Thus,question arises in general that why does some state agree to change its position in the international negotiation while some disagree with it? More exclusively in terms of climate negotiation,which has been prolonged for more than 27 years where a top actor withdraws from the parties and ordinary actor becomes the prominent member in decision making.India has been known as a deal-breaker in the climate negotiations by many countries;however,at the Copenhagen Summit 2009,India dumped its old strategies and strategically made a commitment to voluntary reduce its carbon emission.The thesis illustrates how sudden change in India’s foreign policy towards climate negotiation which remains insufficient for traditional IR approaches to explain,can help in explaining the changing position of countries in both short run and long run through the proposed conceptual model in theory building.Our investigation into this puzzle follow border line of enquiry that all state defends its policies and no state randomize their policies to be undefended.HOW WE PROCEEDEDThe conceptual model however does not discard the two audiences i.e.,domestic and international as proposed by many two level theories,but within we introduces two concepts of sticking and seeking foreign policy i.e.,‘interest based on prestige’ of all state at all time.In climate diplomacy,at the domestic level,India moved towards eco-friendly policies to save energy vis a vis to eradicate poverty and at the international level,India wanted to be perceived as a responsible actor in the global level.For that like any other states,India is seen as sticking towards its old core interest as well as pursuing bigger interest in the international arena.This concept of sticking/seeking foreign policies underwent further testing beyond the area of climate negotiation for state’s prestige.This prestige will further led state to practice defensive diplomacy towards the other state in international politics.SITUATING THIS THESIS IN THE LITERATUREIn Chapter 3,sub heading “3.1.Poverty Impact in India” offers the India’s vulnerability to climate change.This was further elaborated as “poverty as polluter” by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the Stockholm Conference at UNHCE even before the birth of the UNFCCC.This led to the country’s defending foreign policy as India standing for the “equity” based in the climate negotiation.Many Indian practitioners added to the ideas with their own interpretation in the India’s stand towards equity.Since the independence India’s foreign policy was known for Non-Alignment Movement,which stands for not to be under any influence of the super blocs but also known for seeking political space in the international sphere for further bargaining.This was further strengthened by the writing of Nitin and Agarwal “Global Warming in an Unequal World” based on per capita equity rights as highlighted in Chapter 2 and analytical part of Chapter 5.Consequently,Indian scholars fostered towards explicating and extolling officials’ positions on international climate negotiation as noted in the Chapter 4.In order to balance and bring insight,Indian scholars have written extensively on India’s position before and after Copenhagen climate negotiation,where India was known as deal maker for many countries.This was further illustrated by excerpt from the Lok Sabha in Chapter 4(4.8)debate in the parliament towards being flexible in terms of climate change.OUR CONSTRUCTThe foreign policy of any country is shaped by power and constrains by two major factors: ideational(conditional choice)and interest(situational choice).To these we add ‘prestige’ as the discretional choice is equally important for a country to drive / dictate its foreign policy decision making.Ideational factor includes identity which is historically and culturally linked.A country’s conditional choice is dependent on the identity which has shaped the countries policies throughout the histories of time.Whereas interest as situational choice can be demarcated purely as positivist terms if not bridging theories such as social constructivism concept of ideational factors is taken.Countries rational choice is based on the rationality and its calculation based on information gathered which helped it to perceive in avoiding misperception.However,prestige as a discretional choice is limited to the state,as it depended on how ambitious some state or country is in terms of influencing foreign policy making.With the introduction of soft power by Nye and others,international relations scholars have noted that state not only look for hard power in terms of military and economic statecraft but also seek its audience in terms of persuasion.Either take this concept in terms of soft balancing or see it through the prism of Gramscian hegemony,its ultimate goal is to dominate under its influence.Here,prestige for some state is “soft power” and for other it is “hegemony”,as it gives emphasis to discretional choice.Historical evolution of India’s foreign policy in terms of climate diplomacy has influenced the policy maker of both inside and outside India’s parameter.The intervening variable ‘prestige’ explicates why India decide to voluntary reduce its carbon emission target negotiation,abandoning the old strategies of breaking the deal.For case study analysis this thesis studies defensive diplomacy of India in climate negotiation and India’s rigid and flexible strategies in depth case studies.The structure of the research is divided into six chapters,with core chapters starting from Chapter 1 followed by analysis till the conclusion and findings in the Chapter 6.Chapter 2 is conceptualization of theoretical foundation for foreign policy decision making of India in terms of climate diplomacy.This has elaborated the preexisting theories such as neoclassical realism and two-level game,along with other theories.However,most of the cases are ideographic case studies in the existing literature.Therefore,this chapter elaborates the hypothesis generalizing that generalizes beyond the data.It attempt to process theory construction rather than relying on existing theory itself.The Chapter 3 is the studies of India’s vulnerability,without it,the basic understanding of domestic policies are hard to explain.India being a large democratic country is also known for binary opposite views towards India’s existence.The thriving GDP led to be called India as rising power which has extended to ambitious responsible power in the Copenhagen climate summit.Despite being high growth,the challenges of dense population is driving majority towards poverty followed by energy demands,resulting into ecological crisis in its geography.Therefore,this chapter illustrates the ongoing challenges towards India’s present and coming policies.The Chapter 4 is an illustration of domestic constraints about,how India maintains its policies and acknowledges the climate change.India in attempt to balance its status-quo with the international pressure also opened the space for the business group to strengthen the India’s position for the long term.This also helped India to construct its climate policies from top to bottom level with the centralized laws introduced in Centre,state and sub state levels.This helps in formulation of nationally determined action plan as a planned paper to submit in Paris conference which was introduced in the Copenhagen negotiation.Followed by it,the Chapter 5 is India’s negotiation towards international players.How new groupings such as BASIC(Brazil,South Africa,China and India)played an important role in coalition building.The fear of isolation and changing diplomacy of other states,led India to push front instead of pulling back its policies towards sticking to the rigidity.The illustration of figure 5.6 shows the maximalist goal for prestige that helps state to drive through discretional choice in foreign policy decision making.Lastly,Chapter 6 is interplay of the ‘prestige’ in a brief concluding section,where it plays crucial role in foreign policy decision making.This leads to failure and success in negotiation,leading further to offering something VS leaving with nothing.Thus,this chapter recommends the urgency to further testing the case study of defensive diplomacy which has been played in many crises of the histories.Thus,this thesis provides a more comprehensive explanation of state’s choice towards agreeing / disagreeing in certain negotiation and adds theoretical contribution to the existing literature on India’s climate change in particular and state foreign policy choice in general.