It will be the next big fight. India and the US may have found a way to disagree on trade, but there was another big difference that cropped up: climate change. While 19 nations agreed on climate change—and the need to come together to battle it—there was still one lone voice of dissent.
"One country" was how Suresh Prabhu put it, in his media interaction after the G20 refusing to name America. So, far President Donald Trump who is willing to sit across the table with China to talk about trade differences—and even India—has refused to move on climate change. The US would accept the 19 others fighting climate change, but would not commit itself to the process. This is not the first time that there is a climate change draft at the G20 summit, in Argentina a similar draft was floated.
"The world's top scientists (who) came together to work as a team, for the first time, came to the conclusion that it is human induced," said Prabhu. "Action is called for. Delayed action will be more expensive, not in terms of money, (but) as well as disasters."
India has decided to take a lead and keep its promise for the Paris Agreement. Energy—especially renewable energy—was a high priority in this G20. Along with marine waste. “Climate change, India believes, is a reality," he said. Despite, "big money" being pledged to fight this, "a fraction" of the money has not been brought forward.
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But the climate change draft aside, India also has chosen to stand apart on the Osaka track. Led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Osaka Track aims to provide a framework to promote free flow of data across the border with certain restrictions regarding privacy. With data protection and localisation a new area of friction between the countries—India wants to nationalise its data—Modi's absence from this session was noticed. The only other resisters were Indonesia, Egypt and South Africa. This idea, has been floated by Prime Minister Abe and centres around "data free flow with trust” concept. On being asked about Modi's absence, Prabhu remained tight lipped. The reason was “communicated" with the Japanese government, but refused to disclose what it was.
And with America pushing India to not localise its data, this will be the beginning of another battle. “We also affirm the role of data for development,” Vijay Gokhale, foreign secretary, said at the media briefing. “From our perspective, data is a major issue, it is an issue which we are also domestically looking at where international rule-making is taking place.”
