Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Newly declassified US diplomatic records show that India played a decisive role in shaping the Paris climate agreement. The documents reveal that New Delhi helped force a non-binding global deal. They also show how India preserved room for growth while joining a universal climate framework. The records, released by the National Security Archive, early this month, on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, include internal US cables and negotiating papers from 2014 and 2015. Together, they show that US officials viewed India as both indispensable and difficult.
Washington believed that no global climate deal was credible without India. At the same time, US negotiators were determined to weaken the old divide between developed and developing countries that India relied on in climate talks. A February 2014 US position paper stated that the United States would “not support a bifurcated approach” based on 1992-era categories.
It argued that such divisions were “not rational or workable in the post-2020 era,” citing changes in emissions and economic growth. The formulation directly affected countries like India, whose climate diplomacy was rooted in equity and historical responsibility, according to these declassified documents. India pushed back through coalitions. The documents repeatedly refer to BASIC — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — and to the Like-Minded Developing Countries group. These blocs resisted legally binding emissions targets and demanded stronger recognition of development needs.
US officials took these groupings seriously. In internal strategy notes and cables, they warned that India and China, acting together, could block consensus if pushed toward a binding treaty. One late-stage cable referred to the “emergence of G77 and China as a unified bloc,” highlighting the negotiating leverage of developing countries. That leverage shaped the final outcome.